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A 


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AND 


CHIBALD     FORBES 


I<^^ 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 

RIVERSIDE 


CZAR  AND   SULTAN 


CZAR  AND  SULTAN 


THE    ADVENTURES    OF    A    BRITISH     LAD    IN    THE 
RUSSO-TURKISH   WAR   OF    1877-78 


BY 


ARCHIBALD    FORBES 


ILLUSTRATED    BY  PORTRAITS   IN'    THE    POSSESS/Oy  OF    THE 

AUTHOR,  AND  BY  FOUR    'SPECIAL    DRAIVINGS 

BY  SYDNEY  P.   HALL 


NEW   YORK 

CHARLES   SCRIBNER'S   SONS 

1894 


FCC 


COPYRIGHT,    1894,  BY 
CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 


Notfaool)  PrfB8 : 

J.  S.  Gushing  &  Co.  —  Berwick  &  Smith. 

Boston,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 


NOTE 

The  materials  for  this  narrative  are  taken  from  several  sources:  from  the 
admirable  war  letters  written  to  the  Daily  News  during  the  Russo-Turkish 
Campaign  by  my  brilliant  colleagues  Messrs.  MacGahan  and  Millett,  the 
former  of  whom  fell  a  victim  to  its  hardships;  from  the  History  of  the  War 
written  by  Captain  F.  V.  Greene,  the  United  States  Military  Attache  with  the 
^  Russian  Headquarters,  who  was  in  the  field  throughout  the  war,  and  whose 

work  is  the  standard  authority;  from  Mr.  Nemirovitch-Dantchenko's  interest- 
ing and  vivid  Personal  Reminiscences  of  General  Skoheleff ;  from  the  late 
Valentine  Baker  Pasha's  War  in  Bulgaria ;  and  from  sundry  Russian  nar- 
ratives and  reminiscences.  I  have  to  a  considerable  extent  utilized  some 
personal  experiences  of  my  own,  and  have  drawn  occasionally  on  my  cor- 
<^  respondence  to  the  Daily  News,  a  newspaper  to  which  I  owe  what  of  success 
may  have  attended  a  career  of  some  activity  and  variety. 

A.  F. 

London,  June,  1894. 


\ 


CONTENTS 


INTRODUCTION 

CHAPTER 

I.  ACROSS   THE   PRUTH   .... 

II.  THE   CROSSING   OF   THE   DANUBE 

III.  GOURKO'S   RAID   ACROSS   THE   BALKANS 

IV.  THE   SECOND    BATTLE   OF   PLEVNA 

V.  DREARY   DAYS     

VI.  THE   CRISIS   OF   THE   SCHIPKA    PASS     . 

VII.  PELISCHAT   AND   LOFTCHA 

VIII.  THE   SEPTEMBER   BATTLE   OF   PLEVNA 

IX.  THE   SIEGE  OF   PLEVNA 

X.  SKOBELEFF   AND   THE   GREEN    HILL     . 

XI.  IN   THE   BALKANS   WITH   GOURKO 

XII.  THE   FALL   OF   PLEVNA 

XIII.  GOURKO'S   PASSAGE   OF   THE   BALKANS 

XIV.  FROM    SOPHIA   TO   ADRIANOPLE 

XV.  SAN   STEFANO   AND    HOME   AGAIN 


PAGE 
I 

5 

21 
36 

57 
83 
91 

I  22 

147 
174 
222 

243 
259 

309 
347 
372 


vu 


LIST   OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 

THE   EMPEROR   RECEIVES   NEWS   OF   CRISIS   OF   THE    SCHIPKA 

PASS Fro7itispiece 

FACE    PAGE 

GENERAL   SKOBELEFF 1 6 

GRAND   DUKE   NICHOLAS 22 

ALEXANDER    II 34 

GENERAL   IGNATIEFF 58 

PRINCE   CHARLES  OF   ROUMANIA I48 

THE  ASSAULT   ON   THE   MAMELON    REDOUBT           .            .            .            .  164 

THE   CESAREVICH,    1 877 180 

GENERAL   TODLEBEN 1 92 

GENERAL   GOURKO          200 

OSMAN   PASHA 260 

MEETING    OF     NICHOLAS    AND    OSMAN    PASHA    AFTER    CAPITULA- 
TION OF   PLEVNA 276 

THE   "  TE   DEUM  "   AFTER   THE   PROCLAMATION   OF   PEACE    .            .  378 


CZAR  AND   SULTAN 


INTRODUCTION 

MY  name  is  John  Carnegie ;  I  am  in  my  thirty-third 
year,  and,  thank  God,  I  do  not  know  what  sickness 
means,  except  for  an  occasional  touch  of  Danube  fever. 
We  Carnegies  are  of  Scotch  extraction  —  the  name  will 
tell  you  that ;  but  three  generations  of  us  have  lived  in 
Eastern  Europe.  My  good  father  is  still  alive,  hale  and 
hearty,  carrying  on  a  commerce  in  grain  and  other  pro- 
ducts of  the  great  Danubian  valley  as  his  father  did  before 
him,  in  which  business  my  elder  brother  Tom  and  I  my- 
self are  now  the  junior  partners.  My  life  has  been  quite 
uneventful  save  during  one  stirring  and  eventful  year,  of 
which  I  shall  presently  tell  in  detail — the  year  of  the 
great  Russo-Turkish  War  of  1877-78,  at  the  outbreak  of 
which  I  was  just  sixteen  years  old. 

Before  that  time  Bulgaria  was  a  province  of  Turkey; 
and  Roumania,  on  the  other  side  of  the  Danube,  although 
virtually  an  independent  State  with  a  German  prince  as 
its  ruler,  was  nevertheless  still  tributary  to  Turkey.  Our 
house  did  business  both  with  Bulgaria  and  Roumania.  Its 
headquarters  were  at  Rustchuk,  a  Turkish  fortress-town 
on  the  Danube  opposite  the  Roumanian  town  of  Giurgevo; 


Czar  and  Sultan 


we  had  business  offices  in  both  towns,  but  my  father's 
house  was  in  Giurgevo  and  it  was  there  where  I  was  born. 
We  had  branches  further  up  the  river  —  at  Sistova  in  Bul- 
garia, and  at  Simnitza  and  Turnu-Magurelle  in  Roumania. 
We  Hked  the  Turks  better  than  we  did  either  the  Bulga- 
rians, who  were  sullen   people,  or  the  Roumanians,  who, 
though  lively  and  smart,  were  not  quite  so  honest  as  they 
might  have  been.     The  Turks  as  regarded  commerce  were 
slow  and  antiquated  ;  but  their  word  was  their  bond,  and 
even  the  poorest  of  them  had  a  personal  dignity  and  self- 
respect  which  made  intercourse  with  them  very  pleasant. 
In  the  days  before  the  war,  at  least  as  regarded  Bulgaria 
north  of   the   Balkans,  the  country  with  which  we  were 
familiar,    the    Turks    and    Bulgarians    were   fairly   good 
neighbours.     The  former  were  the  dominant  race,  but  they 
were  not  oppressive,  and  the  Bulgarians  purchased  non- 
molestation  by  an  occasional  present  to  the  Turkish  Moul- 
las  (priests).     The  devils  who  oppressed  and  outraged  the 
Bulgarians  were  the  fierce  tribes  of    Circassians  (better 
known  as  Tcherkess)  who  had  been  driven  from  their  own 
country  by  the  Russian  conquest  of  it,  and  to  whom  as 
co-religionists  Turkey  had  in  an  unwise  hour  given  a  refuge 
within  her  borders.     Those  fiends  it  was  whose  ferocities 
practised  on  the  Christian  subjects  of    Turkey  were  the 
real  origin  of  the  Russo-Turkish  war :  if  the  native  Turks 
and  native  Bulgarians  had  joined  in  exterminating  those 
pests  of  the  human  race,  you  in   England  would  never 
have  heard  of  "  Bulgarian  Atrocities,"  and  the  Panslavists 
would  have  had  no  pretext  for  forcing  the  Czar  to  invade 
Turkey  for  the  succour  of  the  Christian  subjects  of  the 
Porte. 


Introduction 


My  elder  brother  has  twin  sons  who  are  now  fourteen 
years  of  age.  They  are  being  educated  at  a  public  school 
in  England,  and  during  the  winter  vacation  they  annually 
pay  us  a  visit  on  the  Danube.  Last  winter  at  their  own 
request  I  sent  them  with  our  head  clerk,  a  Bulgarian 
educated  at  the  Roberts  College  in  Constantinople,  on 
a  tour  through  the  most  interesting  scenes  of  the  great 
war.  They  had  spent  several  days  at  and  around  Plevna, 
in  the  vicinity  of  which  they  found  many  still  unburied 
skeletons.  They  had  crossed  the  Balkans  by  the  Schipka 
Pass,  investigated  the  scene  of  the  stubborn  defence 
which  the  Russians  maintained  there,  followed  Skobeleff's 
track  through  the  snow-wreaths  to  worst  the  Turkish 
army  around  Schipka  and  Shenova  and  to  compel  its 
entire  surrender,  got  on  Gourko's  trail  in  his  combats 
about  Eski-Zagra,  and  from  Adrianople  had  pushed  on 
towards  Constantinople.  On  their  return  journey  by 
Philippopolis  and  Sophia  they  had  reversed  Gourko's 
famous  march,  recrossed  the  Balkans,  and  returned  to  us 
by  way  of  Plevna  and  Nicopolis.  There  was  still  a  fort- 
night before  they  needed  to  return  to  Rossall ;  and  the 
lads  entreated  of  me,  because  they  knew  that  I  had  seen 
much  of  the  fighting  of  the  great  war  and  had  known 
many  of  the  leading  actors  in  that  bloody  tragedy,  that 
I  should  spend  the  evenings  of  that  available  fortnight 
in  clothing  with  something  of  life  and  energy  the  dry 
bones  which  they  had  seen  on  their  travels,  and  in  nar- 
rating to  them  the  "battles,  sieges,  fortunes,"  "the  moving 
accidents  by  flood  and  field"  which  I  had  experienced 
during  that  memorable  period.  They  are  good  lads,  and 
I  love  them.     I  had  packed  away  and,  so  to  speak,  locked 


Czar  and  Sultan 


up  the  grim  memories  of  the  war  year.  But  they  pre- 
vailed with  me ;  and  almost  within  sight  of  a  part  of 
the  fighting  region  from  our  windows  that  looked  across 
the  great  river,  we  sat  round  the  great  open  wood-fire 
evening  after  evening  while  I  smoked  and  talked,  and  my 
young  nephews  listened  with  an  intentness  which  gave 
encouragement  to  a  man  who  by  nature  is  not  very  fluent 
in  speech.  It  seems  that  one  of  the  lads  had  learned 
shorthand,  and  with  his  back  turned  to  me  was  sedulously 
taking  down  my  narrative  verbatim  evening  after  evening, 
entirely  without  my  knowledge.  Since  his  return  to  Eng- 
land he  has  confessed  his  crime  by  letter.  But  so  far 
from  regarding  his  conduct  as  criminal,  the  young  rascal 
informs  me  that  he  has  written  out  his  shorthand  notes 
and  sent  the  transcription  to  a  certain  Mr.  Arrowsmith, 
a  publisher  of  Bristol,  who  not  only  has  not  consigned 
the  manuscript  to  its  proper  destination  on  the  top  of  a 
hot  fire,  but  has  been  so  left  to  himself  as  to  put  it  into 
print  and  intends  to  publish  the  work.  It  is  not  my 
affair ;  I  have  many  faults,  but  I  have  never  been  accused 
of  being  a  literary  man,  although  I  did  perpetrate  a  little 
war-correspondence  in  the  campaign  time.  My  nephew's 
audacity  has  led  him  to  demand  of  me  that  I  should  write 
a  short  introduction  to  the  book  which  he  has  purloined 
from  my  lips,  and  I  have  ignominiously  complied  with 
the  insolent  requisition.  This  done,  I  wash  my  hands  of 
the  affair.     Corn  is  my  line  — ■  not  literature. 


CHAPTER    I 


ACROSS    THE    PRUTH 


AMONG  us  mercantile  folk  the  rumours  of  impend- 
ing war,  it  may  be  imagined,  were  ill  received. 
We  tried  hard  not  to  believe  them.  But  that  was  not 
easy,  after  Turkey's  obstinate  and  angry  rejection  of  the 
Protocol  presented  to  it  by  the  European  powers  on  the 
last  day  of  March,  1877.  When  we  read  that  "strong 
in  the  justice  of  her  cause,  and  putting  her  faith  in  Allah, 
Turkey  had  determined  to  ignore  what  had  been  decided 
without  her  and  against  her,"  it  was  clear  that  the  Ottoman 
Government  had  resolved  to  throw  away  the  scabbard. 
It  takes  two  to  make  a  quarrel ;  and  when  a  fortnight 
passed  without  any  manifesto  on  the  part  of  Russia,  we 
had  some  hope.  But  that  vanished  before  the  stern 
words  given  to  the  world  by  the  Czar  on  April  24th : 
"  Invoking  the  blessing  of  God  upon  our  valiant  armies, 
we  give  the  order  to  cross  the  Turkish  frontier." 

The  Turks  had  already  begun  to  increase  the  defences 
of  Rustchuk,  and  the  reserves  in  the  Bulgarian  province 
were  being  called  up  to  join  the  colours.  Although  no 
intelligence  yet  came  of  the  Russians  having  crossed  the 
Pruth,  it  seemed  certain  that  the  Danube  below  Galatz 
would  soon  be  closed,  and  as  we  had  a  cargo  of  grain 
there  ready  for  shipment,  my  father  sent  me  off  to  Galatz 

5 


Czar  and  Sultan 


on  the  23rd  to  hurry  up  the  ship's  departure.  Young  as 
I  was,  I  was  quite  a  well-grown  fellow,  and  I  believe  that  I 
knew  nearly  as  much  about  our  business  as  did  my  father 
himself.  The  railway  journey  from  Giurgevo  to  Bucharest, 
and  from  Bucharest  nearly  to  Galatz,  was  quite  devoid  of 
interest.  But  as  about  midnight  of  the  24th  the  train 
approached  the  Barbosch  station  about  six  miles  from 
Galatz,  we  saw  the  light  of  watch-fires  along  either  side  of 
the  Sereth  river.  Were  the  Russians  there  already .-'  we 
asked  each  other.  Yes ;  as  the  train  halted  at  the  Bar- 
bosch platform  there  were  the  Russian  sentries  tramping 
up  and  down  among  the  passengers  and  the  piles  of 
stores.  There  was  no  confusion  or  excitement.  The 
refreshment-room  waiter  was  ready  with  his  proffer  of 
hot  coffee  with  as  much  calmness  as  if  there  had  not  been 
a  Russian  outside  Bessarabia.  Some  Russian  cavalry 
officers  drinking  tea  in  the  restaurant  while  waiting  for 
the  train  into  Galatz,  told  me  that  their  division  had 
marched  65  miles  on  the  24th  —  from  Kischeneff  to 
Barbosch.  Next  day  but  one  there  came  into  Galatz  the 
infantrymen  of  the  nth  Russian  Corps  commanded  by 
Prince  Schahofskoy.  I  had  never  seen  a  Russian  soldier 
until  two  nights  before,  and  I  looked  with  great  interest  at 
the  infantry  regiment  now  tramping  along  the  dusty  road 
in  heavy  marching  order.  The  files  came  along  in  loose 
order  straggling  along  all  over  the  road,  at  a  pace  of  close 
on  four  miles  an  hour  —  a  long-striding,  dogged,  steady 
tramp,  clumsy  to  look  at  but  apparently  lasting.  In  but 
few  instances  were  the  rank-and-file  tall  men,  but  they 
were  burly  square-set  fellows,  broad  in  the  shoulders, 
deep  in  the  chest,  and  clean  in  the  flanks.     They  wore  a 


Across  the  Pruth 


sort  of  kepi  —  green  with  red  band  round  it,  —  dark-grccn 
tunic  long  and  loose  in  the  skirts,  and  loose,  baggy- 
trousers  tucked  inside  long  boots  reaching  over  the  calf 
of  the  leg  quite  up  to  the  knee.  They  marched  with 
fixed  bayonets ;  round  the  knapsack  was  a  section  of  the 
tente  d'abris ;  and  every  man  carried  his  own  kettle  on 
the  back  of  his  knapsack,  with  the  heavy  grey  greatcoat 
rolled  and  carried  over  the  left  shoulder.  The  men  looked 
hard,  brown  and  healthy.  As  they  swung  along  with  that 
great  stride  of  theirs,  they  made  light  of  their  heavy  kit 
and  sang  with  great  taste  and  heartiness. 

Behind  the  infantry  came  a  cavalry  regiment  of  Don 
Cossacks,  ambling  along  on  their  gaunt,  wiry  ponies, 
cocked  up  on  a  high  saddle  with  a  leather  pillow  on  it 
kept  in  place  by  a  surcingle.  One  Don  Cossack  was  so 
like  another  that  they  might  all  have  been  cast  in  the 
same  mould,  and  that  in  case  of  accidents  heads,  arms 
and  legs  were  interchangeable.  I  found  it  pleasanter,  for 
sundry  reasons,  to  keep  well  to  windward  of  the  Cossack. 
Studying  him  as  closely  as  his  rankness  permitted,  I 
found  him  a  sturdy,  wiry  little  fellow  of  some  five  feet 
five.  His  weather-beaten  face  was  shrewd,  bold  and 
knowing.  His  eyes  were  small,  oblique  and  keen ;  his 
mouth  large,  and  between  it  and  his  pug-nose  —  rather 
redder  than  the  rest  of  his  face  —  was  a  wisp  of  straw- 
coloured  moustache.  His  long,  thick,  straight  hair 
matched  his  moustache  in  colour,  and  was  cut  sheer 
round  by  the  nape  of  his  neck.  He  wore  a  round  oilskin 
peakless  shako  with  a  knowing  cock  to  the  right,  to  main- 
tain it  at  which  angle  was  a  strap  round  his  chubby  chin. 
Below  the  neck,  as  concerned    his   outside,  the   Cossack 


Czar  and  Sultan 


was  all  boots  and  greatcoat.  The  latter,  of  thick  grey 
blanketing,  came  down  below  his  knees ;  his  boots  came 
up  to  them.  Through  chinks  in  his  greatcoat  were 
glimpses  of  a  sheepskin  undercoat  with  the  hair  worn 
inside  —  the  thermometer  being  over  70°  in  the  shade. 
He  was  armed  beyond  all  conception.  He  carried  a  long 
red,  flagless  lance  with  a  venomous  steel  head ;  and  on 
his  back  was  slung  a  carbine  in  an  oilskin  cover,  the  stock 
downwards.  In  his  belt  was  a  long  and  heavy  revolver 
in  a  leather  holster,  and  from  the  shoulder  hung  a  curved 
sword  with  no  guard  over  its  hilt.  Throughout  the  cam- 
paign I  never  tired  of  studying  the  Cossack.  He  was 
not  by  any  means  a  very  valorous  person,  but  he  was 
ready  for  any  service  except  that  of  close  and  hard  fight- 
ing. He  carried  despatches ;  he  escorted  suspected  spies, 
keeping  the  head  of  his  lance  within  easy  distance  of  the 
small  of  the  suspect's  back  to  be  handy  for  skewering  him 
if  he  should  attempt  to  escape.  I  myself  have  marched 
at  the  point  of  the  rascal's  spear-head,  and  received  occa- 
sional monitory  prods.  The  Cossack  was  even  placed  on 
guard  over  ships  at  the  Galatz  quay  to  prevent  their  un- 
authorised departure.  Dismounting  and  shackling  his  rat 
of  a  pony  by  a  hobble  on  one  fore  and  one  hind  leg,  friend 
Cossack  took  up  a  position  on  the  extreme  edge  of  the 
jetty  with  his  lance  pointed  in  the  direction  of  the  ship,  as 
if  he  would  transfix  it  should  it  attempt  to  escape ;  and 
there  he  stood,  self-contained,  affable  and  alert.  He 
would  accept  a  cigarette  and  tender  you  a  light  in  the 
friendliest  manner,  but  he  could  not  be  coaxed  to  take  his 
eye  for  a  moment  off  the  ship  which  was  in  his  custody. 
As  soon  as  Prince  Schahofskoy  entered  Galatz,  he  gave 


Across  the  Pruth 


orders  that  every  ship  at  Braila  and  Galatz  must  depart 
that  same  evening,  whether  loaded  or  not.  Our  ship  was 
ready,  all  forms  had  been  gone  through,  and  she  was 
among  the  earliest  to  leave.  But  others  were  not  so  fortu- 
nate, nor  could  the  Consuls  of  the  various  nationalities 
interested  move  the  stubborn  Schahofskoy,  who,  indeed, 
significantly  set  his  watch  by  that  of  the  leader  of  the 
deputation  which  visited  him,  and  not  less  significantly 
hinted  at  speedy  laying  of  torpedoes  in  the  lower  river. 
On  the  broad  open  space  of  the  great  quay  of  Galatz 
congregated  most  of  the  population  of  the  place  to  watch 
the  departure  of  the  shipping,  which  was  felt  as  the 
stamping  of  the  seal  of  impending  hostilities.  But,  indeed, 
these  had  already  occurred,  for  a  Turkish  battery  on  the 
south  bank  had  been  firing  across  the  river  on  the  Bar- 
bosch  bridge. 

It  was  here  in  Galatz  where  I  first  met  Mr.  MacGahan, 
the  famous  American  war-correspondent  of  the  Daily 
Ncivs.  MacGahan,  with  his  bright  sunny  face,  his  quaint 
humour,  his  constant  good  temper,  and  his  coolness  which 
nothing  could  disturb,  was  a  singularly  attractive  man.  I 
loved  him  from  the  first ;  and  no  wonder,  for  he  was  kind- 
ness itself  to  me,  a  casual  lad  who  had  not  on  him  even  the 
weak  claim  of  being  his  countryman.  After  a  few  days  of 
delightful  intercourse  with  him,  he  told  me  that  for  certain 
there  would  be  no  mercantile  business  done  along  the 
Danube  for  many  a  month  to  come,  and  he  offered  to  show 
me  some  work  which  would  interest  me  and  give  me  fine 
opportunities  for  seeing  men  and  things,  providing  my 
father  would  assent  to  the  proposal.  The  old  gentleman 
made  no  objections,  replying  to  my  letter  simply  that  I 


lO  Czar  and  Sultan 

must  keep  out  of  danger  as  much  as  possible.  MacGahan 
and  I  were  in  Braila  on  the  loth  May  when  a  Turkish 
flotilla,  headed  by  several  ironclads,  came  out  of  a  branch 
into  the  main  Danube,  and  the  ironclads  opened  fire  on 
the  partially  armed  Russian  batteries  on  the  edge  of  the 
town  and  on  Braila  itself.  The  Russian  fire  drove  them 
back  into  the  branch  ;  but  one  ironclad  remained  under 
cover  of  some  trees  above  which  its  three  masts  showed. 
Some  shots  from  field-guns  were  fired  at  the  vessel  with 
no  effect,  and  then  two  siege-guns  opened.  The  first  shot 
had  no  effect ;  the  second  dropped  on  the  deck  of  the 
ironclad.  It  was  supposed  that  the  shell  must  have  crashed 
through  the  deck  into  the  ship's  powder  magazine.  I  saw 
a  great  flash  blaze  up  from  the  bowels  of  the  ship,  fol- 
lowed by  a  heavy  pall  of  white  smoke ;  when  that  drifted 
away  all  that  remained  visible  was  the  stern  of  the  Liitji 
Djelil,  with  the  mizzen-mast  standing  on  which  still  flut- 
tered the  Crescent  flag.  MacGahan  and  I  were  allowed 
seats  in  a  Russian  steam-launch  which  put  out  from  Braila. 
The  wreck  was  boarded,  the  Turkish  flag  was  pulled  down, 
and  two  of  the  ill-fated  crew  were  rescued,  the  sole  sur- 
vivors of  two  hundred  officers  and  men. 

We  had  a  stirring  torpedo  adventure  a  fortnight  later. 
The  Turkish  flotilla  still  lay  anchored  in  the  Matchin 
channel  a  few  miles  above  Braila.  Lieutenant  Dubassoff 
of  the  Russian  navy  determined  to  attack  it  under  cover 
of  night.  He  had  four  small  steam  launches,  two  of  which 
were  to  make  the  actual  attack  ;  the  other  two  were  to 
remain  in  support  in  case  of  accident  to  either  of  the 
attacking  craft.  Of  the  latter  one  was  commanded  by 
Dubassoff,  the  leader  of  the  little  expedition,  with  a  crew 
I 


Across  the  Pruth  \  i 


of  fourteen  men  ;  the  other  by  Lieutenant  Shestakoff,  who 
had  a  crew  of  nine.      Both  boats  were  protected  from  stem 
to  stern  with  iron  mantlets  painted  black  and  thick  enough 
to  stop  bullets.     The  only  persons  exposed  were  the  two 
officers,  each  of  whom  steered  his  own  craft.     MacGahan 
and  I  were  aboard  one  of  the  auxiliary  launches,  neither 
of  which  had  protective  mantlets.      The  little  expedition 
started  at  midnight  of  a  dark  and  rainy  night,  and  after  an 
hour's  steaming  we  were  close  to  the  Turkish  flotilla.     A 
sentry  on  board  one  of   the  ships  challenged  again  and 
again.    Dubassoff  as  we  approached  called  out  "Friends!" 
in  Turkish ;  but  the  sentry  fired,  and  thus  the  alarm  was 
given.     As    our  launch    lay  perhaps    a   couple    of   cable 
lengths  away,  we  could  hear  the  sudden  stir  aboard  the 
ship,  cries  and  shouts,  and  the  loud  orders  of  the  officers 
to  man  the  guns.     Presently  a  shell  came  whistling  over 
our  heads ;  we  had  seen  the  flash  as  the  gun  was  fired. 
Dubassoff  made  straight  for  the  ship  heading  for  its  bow, 
Shestakoff  waiting  behind  to  watch  results.     Each  boat,  I 
should  mention,  was  armed  with  two  torpedoes  at  the  end 
of  long  spars  projecting  on  either  bow.      The  torpedoes 
were  detachable ;  there  were  fastened  to  them  long,  light 
chains  by  which  they  could  be  lashed  on  to  any  projection 
of  the  ship  which  was  being  attacked,  and  a  flexible  wire 
about  lOO  yards  long  connected  them  with  the  boat,  where 
a  small  electric  battery  was  strapped  around  the  waist  of 
the  officer  in  command.      Through  the  storm  of   wildly- 
aimed  fire  that  poured  from  the  ship,  Dubassoff  shot  under 
the  bow,  fastened  the  chain  attached  to  the  torpedo  on  her 
cable,   dropped   the  torpedo   from   the   spar,   and  backed 
until  the  full  length  of  the  connecting  wire  was  reached. 


12  Czar  and  Sitltan 

The  current  had  carried  the  torpedo  right  under  the  fore- 
part of  the  doomed  ship.  Dubassoff  caught  the  moment 
and  connected  the  wire  with  the  battery  on  his  person. 
An  instant  later  we  dimly  saw  a  huge  mass  of  water  shoot 
up  into  the  air ;  as  it  rose  it  was  illuminated  by  a  terrific 
explosion  in  the  din  of  which  were  mingled  the  shouts  and 
cries  of  the  Turkish  crew.  A  gruesome  rain  of  fragments 
fell  into  our  craft,  comparatively  distant  though  it  was  — 
members  of  human  bodies,  pieces  of  shells,  fragments  of 
iron  and  splinters  of  wood.  Dubassoff's  launch  was  all 
but  swamped ;  and  he  moved  away,  calling  on  Shestakoff 
as  he  passed  to  attempt  placing  another  torpedo  so  as  to 
make  sure  of  the  utter  ruin  of  the  Turkish  ship.  Not- 
withstanding the  carnage  and  ruin  effected  by  the  first 
torpedo,  what  remained  of  the  ironclad's  crew  fought  on 
nobly,  keeping  up  a  heavy  but  random  fire.  The  other 
Turkish  ships  struck  in  with  their  fire ;  but  the  Russian 
launches  being  all  but  invisible  in  the  gloom,  they  blazed 
into  each  other  at  random  and  the  confusion  and  dismay 
were  appalling.  Shestakoff  darted  in  under  the  ship's 
stern,  planted  a  torpedo,  backed,  shot  the  electric  spark 
from  his  body-battery,  and  the  second  explosion  was  more 
terrible  than  had  been  the  first.  The  ship  sank  almost 
immediately,  nothing  of  her  showing  above  water  except 
her  upper  masts ;  her  hapless  crew  killed  or  drowned, 
saving  the  few  who  swam  ashore.  Dubassoff  considered 
that  he  had  done  enough  for  one  night.  He  and  Shesta- 
koff passed  under  the  fire  of  the  two  other  gunboats, 
escaping  unharmed,  joined  their  consort  craft  from  one 
of  which  we  had  witnessed  the  lurid  scene,  and  by  daylight 
the  flotilla  was  safe  alongside  the  Braila  wharf.     The  two 


Ac7^oss  tJie  Pruth  13 

officers  and  the  crews  of  the  attacking  launches  received 
the  Cross  of  St.  George.  For  my  part  the  horror  of  the 
adventure  was  so  lasting,  that  for  nights  after  I  awoke 
shuddering  in  a  cold  perspiration  with  the  yells  of  the 
unfortunates  tingling  in  my  ears. 

By  this  time  there  had  come  to  Braila  and  Galatz,  as 
the  chief  points  of  interest  for  the  time,  a  number  of 
correspondents  and  artists  from,  as  it  seemed,  every  Euro- 
pean country.  MacGahan  welcomed  two  countrymen  in 
the  persons  of  Millett  and  Jackson,  representatives  of  the 
New  York  Herald,  with  the  former  of  whom  I  was  later  to 
have  many  adventures.  Mr.  Villiers,  the  war-artist  of  the 
Graphic,  was  very  kind  to  me ;  later  in  the  campaign  I  was 
much  in  his  company  and  I  would  go  a  long  way  to  meet 
him  again.  I  was  glad  to  be  able  to  be  of  some  service  to 
the  correspondent  gentlemen.  Except  MacGahan,  who 
seemed  to  speak  every  language  under  the  sun,  and  who 
was  as  glib  in  Turkish  as  in  Russian  and  Bulgarian  (which 
are  a  good  deal  like  each  other),  none  of  them  had  any 
acquaintance  with  the  local  languages  of  Eastern  Europe. 
For  business  purposes  I  had  become  conversant  with  them 
all,  and  I  spent  many  an  hour  in  teaching  Millett  and  Vil- 
liers the  most  useful  words  in  Turkish  and  Bulgarian. 
The  campaign  meanwhile  progressed,  as  we  thought, 
strangely  leisurely.  But  it  seemed  that  the  delay  was 
inevitable.  The  Danube  was  still  flowing  brimming  full, 
miles  of  shore  on  either  side  of  the  main  stream  under 
water.  Pending  the  falling-in  of  the  great  river  the 
Russians,  it  seemed,  were  spreading  themselves  all  over 
Roumania,  making  themselves  very  much  at  home.  Mac- 
Gahan told  me  that  in  May  there  were  four  Russian  corps 


14  Czar  a?id  Sultan 

actually  in  the  Principalities,  besides  the  elder  Skobeleff's 
Cossack  division  and  nine  unattached  Cossack  regiments. 
The  9th  Corps  (General  Baron  Kriidener)  was  about  Sla- 
tina  in  the  west  of  Wallachia ;  the  8th  (General  Radetski) 
about    Bucharest;    the    nth  (Prince    Schahofskoy)  along 
the  Danube  from  below  Galatz  to  Oltenitza;  and  the  12th 
(General  Vannovsky)  about  Bucharest.      I  was  told  that 
three  more  corps  were  coming  up  in  the  second  line  —  the 
14th  (General  Zimmermann)  to  occupy  the  Dobrutscha, 
the  13th  (General  Hahn)  to  march  forward  to  Alexandria 
south-west   of    Bucharest,   and   the   4th  (General    Zotoff) 
to  Bucharest.     Meantime  all  around  Braila  were  camps, 
most  of  them  what  were  called  "flying  camps."     Their 
occupants  were  here  one  day  and  gone  the  next.     Now 
it  was  a  brigade  of  the  elder  Skobeleff's  Cossacks,  who 
put  up  here  for  a  day  and  demanded  rations,  on  their  way 
to  Bucharest,  Kalarash,  Turnu-Magurelle,  or  Giurgevo  — 
who  could  tell .?     Now  a  regiment  of  Dragomiroff's  stout 
fellows  of  the  8th  Corps,  with  the  mud  of  the  Pruth  valley 
still    on    their   long   boots ;    now  the   heavy  dragoons    of 
Prince  Manueloff,  big  men  on  big  horses.     The   masses 
passed  outside  of  Braila,  but  a  battalion,  or  a  squadron, 
or  a  sotnia  of  Cossacks  always  made  its  way  through  the 
town  with    any    amount    of    swagger,   bands    playing,   or 
drums  beating,  or  leading  files  thumping  the  cymbals  or 
marching  with  "  singers  in  front."     Rations  were  waiting 
always  for  the  in-marching  troops,  and  the  out-marching 
had  their  haversacks  filled    up.       Stacks  of   loaves  were 
everywhere :  the   grain,    rye-flour ;    the   loaves   almost   as 
dark  in  colour  as  the  German    Schwartz-brod,  baked   by 
the  military  bakers  in  the  field  ovens  in  the  camp. 


Across  the  Pruth  \  5 


The  Russians  were  anxious  to  make  their  left-flank 
bridge  across  the  Danube  in  the  vicinity  of  Braila,  but  so 
late  as  June  ist  the  river  was  still  15  feet  above  the  ordi- 
nary level  of  that  date.  MacGahan  determined  to  go  to 
Bucharest  for  a  time,  returning  to  Braila  when  he  should 
hear  when  it  was  likely  that  the  bridge  there  would  be 
taken  in  hand.  He  took  me  with  him  to  Bucharest  for 
service  as  his  amanuensis.  I  had  often  before  visited 
that  city,  but  now  I  scarcely  knew  it  again.  Bucharest 
calls  itself  the  "  Paris  of  the  East,"  and  Paris  was  never 
more  abandoned  to  an  orgie  of  pleasure  than  was  Bucha- 
rest in  the  early  summer  of  1877.  It  was  throbbing  in  a 
delirium  of  giddy  joy  not  less  reckless  than  dissipated, 
accentuated  by  the  clank  of  martial  accoutrements,  the 
clatter  of  sword-scabbards  on  the  parquet  floors  of  the 
restaurants,  and  the  steady  tramp  of  the  cohorts  pouring 
through  the  seething  streets.  Princes,  grand  dukes, 
diplomats,  aides-de-camp,  contractors,  Polish  Jews,  and 
war-correspondents  belonging  to  every  European  nation- 
ality jostled  each  other  politely  on  the  broad  staircase  of 
the  Hotel  Brofft. 

In  the  garden-restaurant  of  that  establishment  gay 
Guardsmen  from  the  Russian  headquarter  staff  were 
drinking  champagne  as  they  glanced  scornfully  on  the 
adjacent  group  of  swarthy,  slender  officers  of  the  Rou- 
manian army,  who  had  not  yet  retrieved  their  tainted 
military  reputation  by  the  valour  they  were  soon  to  show 
in  the  fierce  fighting  and  terrible  carnage  of  the  great 
Gravitza  Redoubt.  In  a  shady  corner  under  the  drooping 
willow-tree,  sat  MacGahan  with  myself,  his  loyal  and 
loving  henchman,  by  his  side.     He  was  telling  me  of  a 


1 6  Czar  and  Stiltan 

certain  young  Russian  general  named  Skobeleff,  an  old 
Khivan  comrade  of  his,  of  whom  as  yet  I  had  barely  heard 
although  I  had  already  met  his  worthy  father  at  Galatz. 
As  he  gossiped  with  me  about  his  friend  over  the  flagon 
of  Pilsener  beer,  I  chanced  to  notice  two  men  enter  the 
garden-restaurant.  The  two  were  arm-in-arm.  One  was 
dressed  in  the  plain,  ugly  blue  uniform  of  a  private  of 
dragoons  —  a  small,  slight,  swarthy  man,  with  a  face  full 
of  intelligence.  His  companion,  tall,  stately  and  blond,  of 
noble  carriage  and  with  flowing  tawny  beard,  was  dressed 
in  spotless  white  and  wore  the  insignia  of  a  general  officer. 
The  curious  spectacle  of  a  general  and  a  private  soldier 
arm-in-arm  struck  me,  and  I  called  MacGahan's  attention 
to  it.  He  sprang  to  his  feet  with  the  exclamation  :  "  Why, 
it's  the  very  man  —  it  is  Skobeleff  himself  !  " 

I  looked  at  Skobeleff  with  all  my  eyes  as  he  stood  there 
on  the  garden-path,  his  fine  face  glowing  with  pleasure  as 
he  returned  the  greeting  of  his  old  friend.  I  thought  then 
as  a  lad,  as  I  have  never  ceased  to  think,  that  I  never 
looked  on  a  grander  man.  Over  six  feet  in  height,  straight 
as  a  pine,  the  head  carried  high  with  a  frank  gallant  fear- 
lessness, square  across  the  broad  shoulders,  deep  in  the 
chest,  slender  of  waist,  clean  of  flank,  the  muscular,  grace- 
ful, supple  figure  set  off  to  perfection  by  the  white  frock- 
coat  with  the  decorations  and  the  gold  lace  on  it,  Skobeleff, 
with  his  chivalrous  bearing,  looked  a  genial  king  of  men. 
Presently  he  came  and  sat  down  by  us,  and  MacGahan 
presented  me  to  him.  As  he  talked  my  eyes  were  fastened 
on  his  face ;  for  he  fascinated  me  so  that  I  could  not  help 
myself,  although  he  must  have  thought  me  rude.  Except 
MacGahan  himself  I  never  knew  a  man  so  winning.     No 


GENERAL   SKOBELEFF. 


Across  the  Priith  17 

wonder  that  soldiers,  friends,  and  women  loved  him  !  —  it 
was  impossible  to  know  him,  to  have  him  smile  on  you 
with  that  sweet  grave  smile  of  his,  and  not  to  love  him.  I 
could  not  fancy  this  man  a  foreigner  who  sat  by  me  talk- 
ing in  purest  idiomatic  English  of  that  England  which  he 
knew  so  infinitely  better  than  did  I  ;  he  looked  to  me  like 
what  I  imagined  an  English  country  gentleman  of  the 
best  type  should  look.  It  seemed  to  me  that  this  young 
man  —  he  was  then  barely  thirty-three  —  had  been  every- 
where, seen  everything,  done  everything,  and  read  every- 
thing. He  talked  all  the  afternoon  on  all  sorts  of  subjects. 
We  three  dined  together,  and  then  we  went  into  the  empty 
music-room  where  Skobeleff  to  his  own  pianoforte  accom- 
paniment sang  songs  in  French,  German,  Russian,  Kirghis, 
Italian,  and  English. 

Engrossed  in  Skobeleff,  I  had  scarcely  noticed  his  com- 
panion, the  dragoon-private  in  the  shabby  uniform.  Yet, 
as  MacGahan  subsequently  told  me,  he  was  no  insignifi- 
cant person.  He  was  of  the  best  blood  of  Russia  —  his 
name  was  Prince  Tzeretleff.  Later  I  knew  him  well. 
He  had  been  secretary  to  Ignatieff  while  that  diplomat 
was  Russian  ambassador  at  Constantinople  and  London. 
When  the  war  broke  out  Tzeretleff  had  abandoned  diplo- 
macy ;  and  panting  for  action  yet  knowing  nothing  of 
war,  he  had  taken  service  as  a  private  dragoon.  Skobeleff 
had  found  him  bivouacking  in  a  swamp  on  the  Danube 
side  and  had  annexed  him  as  his  orderly.  Such  enthu- 
siasm for  active  service  was  not  uncommon  in  this  war 
among  the  Russian  nobility.  Across  the  Danube  in  Bul- 
garia, I  remember  noticing  a  very  venerable  man  riding 
as  a  sub-lieutenant  in  a  cavalry  regiment.     This  mature 


1 8  Czar  and  Sulta7i 


subaltern  was  seventy-three  years  of  age,  one  of  the 
Emperor's  chamberlains,  and  having  the  relative  rank  of 
a  full  general  ;  the  bearer,  too,  of  a  historic  name,  for  it 
was  his  father,  Count  Rostopchin,  to  whom  the  sad  but 
grand  task  of  burning  Moscow  was  confided  when  Napo- 
leon's legions  were  approaching  the  venerable  capital. 
The  old  gentleman,  destitute  of  military  knowledge,  had 
begged  a  lieutenant's  commission  in  the  Hussars  and  he 
had  ridden  every  yard  of  the  way  since  his  regiment  had 
crossed  the  Pruth.  As  for  Prince  Tzeretleff,  he,  as  you 
will  be  told  later,  distinguished  himself  greatly  through- 
out the  war,  but  the  long  strain  wrought  on  his  brain  and 
a  few  years  ago  he  died  insane. 

MacGahan  had  broken  a  bone  in  his  ankle  by  a  fall 
from  his  horse  before  the  campaign  began,  and  after  this 
accident,  although  he  was  still  one  of  the  most  active 
of  men,  he  constantly  limped.  He  needed  some  rest, 
after  taking  which  he  intended  to  return  to  Braila  to  study 
the  operations  on  the  Russian  left  flank.  I  had  ventured 
to  mention  to  Skobeleff  that  a  native  of  Giurgevo  I  was 
intimately  acquainted  with  the  course  of  the  Danube  from 
Hirsova  up  to  Widdin ;  and  he  asked  MacGahan  to  lend 
me  to  him  for  a  time,  since  he  thought  I  should  be  of  use 
in  some  work  he  had  before  him.  MacGahan  consented, 
and  I  went  down  to  Giurgevo  with  Skobeleff  and  Tzeret- 
leff. I  should  have  mentioned  earlier  that  MacGahan 
had  told  me  the  peculiar  situation  of  Skobeleff  in  the 
earlier  part  of  this  campaign.  He  was  a  most  brilliant 
soldier  and  had  distinguished  himself  greatly  in  Asia. 
His  latest  exploit  was  the  subjection,  after  hard  fighting, 
of  the    Turcoman    province    of    Khokand  —  later   named 


Across  the  Pruth  19 

Ferghana,  —  of  which  he  was  appointed  Governor.  After 
holding  that  position  for  a  year  his  enemies  —  all  leading 
men  have  enemies  —  presented  an  accusation  to  the  Em- 
peror against  Skobeleff,  charging  him  with  cruelties  to 
the  native  population  and  embezzlement  of  public  moneys. 
When  Skobeleff  was  informed  of  this  accusation  he  hur- 
ried to  St.  Petersburg  with  the  papers  which  he  believed 
would  clear  him.  The  Czar  had  gone  to  Kischinsff  to 
join  the  army.  Skobeleff  followed  him,  but  Alexander's 
ear  had  been  poisoned  against  him  and  he  was  refused 
an  audience.  The  Emperor,  however,  knew  his  daring 
character  and  allowed  him  to  make  the  campaign  as  a 
sort  of  free-lance,  with  the  nominal  position  of  Chief  of 
Staff  to  his  father's  division  of  Cossack  cavalry. 

When  we  reached  Giurgevo,  I  found  to  my  surprise 
that  the  headquarters  of  the  elder  Skobeleff  were  in  my 
father's  house ;  in  this  very  house,  boys,  in  which  we  are 
now  sitting  round  the  fire !  And  it  was  in  this  very  room 
that  I  found  the  tough  old  warrior  and  my  good  father  — 
who,  thank  God,  is  still  with  us — placidly  drinking  lager 
beer  together,  while  Verestchagine  the  Russian  artist  was 
finishing  one  of  his  paintings.  For  the  next  few  days 
Skobeleff  treated  me  to  a  few  days  of  about  the  most 
risky  amusement  that  the  most  adventurous  man  need 
covet.  His  employment  for  the  time  was  laying  torpe- 
does in  the  bed  of  the  Danube  along  with  Commander 
Novikoff,  to  isolate  the  Turkish  river  ironclads  within  cir- 
cumscribed bounds.  This  work  was  done  by  a  number 
of  steam  launches,  which  had  been  brought  overland  from 
Russia  and  launched  in  the  Danube.  While  we  were  lay- 
ing a  barricade  of  torpedoes  across  the  river  at  Parapan 


20  Czar  and  Sultan 

above  Rustchuk  in  the  early  morning  of  June  17th,  an 
ironclad  came  up  from  Rustchuk  and  blazed  at  us  with 
shrapnel.  A  torpedo  boat  was  sent  after  her  and  she 
scuttled  home,  but  every  man  in  the  torpedo  boat  was 
wounded ;  and  then  a  Turkish  battery  on  the  bank  opened 
fire  on  us.  We  separated,  some  of  the  launches  running 
up  stream,  some  down ;  ultimately  they  were  all  hauled 
out  of  water  and  carted  to  Karabia,  about  five  miles  above 
Nicopolis,  where  another  barricade  of  monitors  was  estab- 
lished. Both  of  the  Turkish  ironclads  at  Nicopolis  came 
out  to  attempt  to  hinder  the  operations,  but  were  driven 
home ;  and  never  after  did  any  Turkish  armed  craft  leave 
the  shelter  of  the  fortresses.  In  all,  two  of  the  ironclads 
were  sunk,  two  more  were  captured  at  the  surrender  of 
Nicopolis,  and  the  other  three  remained  at  Rustchuk  till 
the  end  of  the  war.  At  the  time  of  the  crossing  the 
Russians  had  about  25  steam  launches  and  torpedo  boats 
on  the  river ;  later  they  had  as  many  as  54,  policing  the 
river  and  guarding  the  torpedo  barricades.  Skobeleff 
seemed  to  me  to  have  a  positive  delight  in  drawing  the 
enemy's  fire,  and  he  went  back  to  his  quarters  radiant  if 
he  had  teased  the  Turks  into  expending  half-a-dozen  shells 
in  blazing  at  his  cockle-shell  of  a  steam  launch.  But  in- 
deed it  was  rarely  that  we  saw  quarters.  Sometimes  we 
slept  in  the  launch  among  the  bulrushes ;  other  nights  we 
would  bivouac  on  the  bank  by  the  fire  of  a  Russian  picket, 
whose  soup  we  were  glad  to  share. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  CROSSING  OF  THE  DANUBE 

T)RESENTLY  came  the  general  move  of  the  Russians 
A  down  into  the  vicinity  of  the  great  river  in  anticipa- 
tion of  the  crossing.  Skobeleff  suddenly  disappeared ; 
it  was  my  notion  that  he  did  not  like  to  answer  questions 
as  to  where  that  crossing  was  to  be.  I  returned  to  Bucha- 
rest. MacGahan  had  gone  back  to  Braila,  where  he  wit- 
nessed Zimmermann's  crossing  of  the  lower  Danube  on 
June  22nd.  I  found  Mr.  Villiers  in  Bucharest.  He  was 
burning  with  anxiety  to  witness  and  sketch  the  upper 
crossing,  but  nobody  would  tell  him  anything  about  the 
probable  locality.  He  asked  me  to  accompany  him  as 
companion  and  interpreter ;  I  readily  agreed,  for  I  was  as 
eager  as  himself.  Knowing  where  the  torpedo  barricades 
were  laid,  I  could  guess  that  the  crossing  must  occur  some- 
where between  Parapan  and  Karabia,  but  that  was  a  pretty 
wide  word.  I  had  heard  that  three  Russian  army  corps 
were  in  and  near  the  convexity  of  the  great  bend  between 
those  two  places,  but  that  information  did  not  help  us 
much.  The  Russian  chiefs  were  said  to  have  been  long 
in  doubt.  At  first  the  point  was  to  have  been  from  Sim- 
nitza  to  Sistova  ;  then  the  crossing  was  fixed  to  be  from 
Turnu-Magurelle  to  Nicopolis,  but  there  was  a  difficulty 
about  pontoons,  and  at  the  last  moment  it  turned  out  that 
the  first  decision  was  also  the  last. 


22  Czai'-  and  Stiltan 

But  that  we  could  not  know  at  the  time.  Villiers  had 
received  a  promise  from  General  Dragomiroff,  command- 
ing the  14th  division,  8th  Corps,  to  take  him  with  him 
when  the  crossing  should  occur.  But  where  was  General 
Dragomiroff.'*  we  asked  in  vain  as  we  journeyed  from 
Bucharest  on  the  morning  of  the  24th.  Village  after 
village,  all  crammed  with  troops,  from  the  railway  west- 
ward to  Alexandria,  we  searched  in  vain  for  the  red  flag 
indicating  the  quarters  of  a  divisional  commander.  The 
Cossack  Colonel  Orloff  was  in  a  charming  bivouac  near 
the  village  of  Nieru,  but  he  would  go  no  further  than  to 
admit  that  he  believed  there  was  a  General  Dragomiroff  in 
the  Russian  army.  A  major  at  Putinein  confessed  that 
he  knew  where  Dragomiroff  was,  but  frankly  told  us  he 
was  compelled  to  decline  imparting  that  knowledge  to  us 
or  any  one  else.  We  respected  his  reserve,  but  all  the 
same  gnashed  our  teeth.  We  headed  for  Alexandria  by 
the  nearest  of  the  two  roads  from  Putinein.  Suddenly  we 
were  in  the  midst  of  a  vast  pontoon  train  snugly  stowed 
away  out  of  sight  in  the  defile.  An  officer  peremptorily 
turned  us  back,  informed  us  that  the  valley  road  was  "  de- 
fendu  pour  cause,''  and  told  us  that  Dragomiroff  might  be 
dead  and  buried  for  anything  he  knew.  In  Alexandria 
was  the  staff  of  the  Emperor;  there,  too,  that  of  the  Grand 
Duke  Nicholas  the  Commander-in-Chief ;  and  more  grand 
dukes,  more  excellencies,  and  the  staffs  of  half-a-score 
generals.  Every  house  was  billeted  full  to  the  doorstep 
and  beyond.  Cossacks  crammed  the  petty  shops  and 
grumbled  at  the  bad  exchange  for  their  paper  roubles. 
There  was  no  getting  a  seat  at  the  only  restaurant.  Yet 
withal   singular  order  and   quietude   prevailed   and   there 


GRAND    DUKE    NICHOLAS. 


The  Crossing  of  the  Danube  23 


was  absolutely  no  drunkenness,  vodka-lover  as  is  the 
Russian  soldier. 

I  saw  Skobeleff  in  a  crowd  this  evening,  assisting  a 
lady  out  of  a  carriage.  Now,  thought  I,  our  difficulties 
were  over;  Skobeleff  would  be  sure  to  tell  us  where  was 
Dragomiroff  and  where  the  crossing  was  to  be.  He  shook 
hands  in  his  cordial  way,  and  I  asked  him  both  the  ques- 
tions, explaining  that  I  did  so  in  the  interest  of  his  friend 
Villiers.  "  My  dear  fellow,"  replied  Skobeleff,  "  I  assure 
you  I  haven't  the  faintest  idea !  Good-evening !  "  and 
with  that  he  hurried  away.  Tzeretleff  assured  us  that  he 
had  never  even  heard  of  any  crossing.  At  length  a  happy 
thought  occurred  to  Villiers.  He  knew  Count  Schouvaloff, 
an  aide-de-camp  of  the  Emperor  and  nephew  of  "  Uncle 
Peter  "  then  Russian  ambassador  to  England,  and  he  ap- 
pealed to  him.  The  count  said  that  Dragomiroff  was  un- 
attainable, but  that  he  would  ask  General  Prince  Mirski, 
commanding  the  twin  division  to  Dragomiroff's  in  the  8th 
Corps,  to  be  of  use  to  the  English  artist.  Villiers  promptly 
waited  on  the  prince,  who  told  him  that  he  was  marching 
on  the  following  day  to  a  point  thirty  versts  from  Alex- 
andria, to  which  point  he  would  detail  an  orderly  to  escort 
Mr.  Villiers  and  his  companion.  We  did  not  in  the  least 
know  whither  we  were  going.  Probably  to  Turnu-Magu- 
relle,  was  Villiers'  opinion  ;  and  it  seemed  plausible,  for  dur- 
ing the  whole  of  the  24th  had  come  the  sound  of  a  heavy 
cannonade  from  that  direction.  It  continued  throughout 
the  two  following  days,  no  doubt  misleading  the  Turks 
very  considerably,  not  to  speak  of  the  correspondents  with 
the  Russian  army. 

On  the  morning  of  the  25th  a  soldier  rode  up  to  us  as 


24  Czar  and  Sultan 

we  were  mounting  and  told  us  in  excellent  English  that  he 
was  commanded  by  Prince  Mirski  to  act  as  our  escort. 
Russian  private  soldiers  are  rarely  conversant  with  Eng- 
lish ;  yet  this  man  judging  by  his  uniform  seemed  nothing 
more  than  a  "simple  soldier"  —  an  infantry  man  of  the 
1st  regiment  of  the  9th  division  mounted  on  a  nice  little 
grey  horse.  He  wore  the  white  blouse  of  the  private  sol- 
dier with  the  red  shoulder-straps  of  his  regiment;  a  bayonet 
hung  from  his  waistbelt,  a  carbine  was  slung  on  his  back, 
and  his  loose  trousers  were  tucked  into  his  long  boots.  He 
talked  to  Mr.  Villiers  as  we  rode  along,  and  the  more  he 
talked  the  more  I  wondered  to  find  a  private  soldier  who 
had  visited  every  capital  in  Europe  and  who  told  Villiers 
that  the  Prince  of  Wales  had  proposed  him  for  the  Marl- 
borough Club.  At  the  top  of  the  hill  he  drew  from  his 
holster-case  a  silver  luncheon-box  ornamented  by  a  coat  of 
arms,  and  offered  us  cognac  and  caviare  sandwiches.  Soon 
after  we  had  remounted  there  was  a  parting  of  three  roads, 
and  our  escort  found  himself  in  trouble.  He  followed  first 
one  road  and  then  another,  and  finally  owned  that  he  was 
at  fault.  We  had  watched  his  growing  bewilderment  with 
some  amusement,  because  he  had  evaded  our  question  as 
to  what  place  he  was  taking  us.  I  knew  the  country 
thoroughly,  and  at  length  ventured  to  tell  him  so,  adding 
that  I  could  not  put  him  straight  unless  I  knew  where  he 
desired  to  go.  He  laughed  and  said  that  Lissa  was  his 
destination  ;  whereupon  I  indicated  the  road  and  we  rode 
on.  Villiers  then  suggested  that  as  we  had  found  the  road 
for  him  he  might  be  so  courteous  as  to  tell  us  his  name, 
which  he  promptly  gave  as  "  Prince  Dolgorouki."  He  had 
been  in  the  diplomatic  service,  but  had  thrown  that  up  to 


The  Crossing  of  the  Danube  25 


serve  as  a  private  soldier  during  the  war.  He  was  only 
a  private  in  name  and  in  dress.  He  lived  with  Prince 
Mirski  and,  indeed,  later  in  the  campaign  saved  that  com- 
mander's life. 

We  were  guests  of  the  prince  during  the  26th.  He  was 
extremely  kind,  but  still  we  were  kept  in  ignorance  as  to 
the  whereabouts  of  the  crossing.  Late  in  the  afternoon 
Skobeleff  came  up  at  a  gallop.  He  halted  when  he  saw 
Villiers,  bade  us  saddle  and  come  with  him,  and  rode  for- 
ward after  exchanging  a  few  words  with  Prince  Mirski. 
It  was  not  yet  sundown  when  we  reached  Simnitza,  in  and 
around  which  was  the  whole  of  the  14th  division  com- 
manded by  General  Dragomiroff,  who  was  busy  with  the 
preparations  for  crossing  during  the  night, 

Opposite  to  Simnitza,  the  Roumanian  town  on  the  right 
bank  of  the  Danube,  is  the  town  of  Sistova,  then  Turkish, 
but  now  Bulgarian.  Sistova  stands  high,  above  and  in  the 
hollows  of  a  precipice  overhanging  the  river.  Down- 
stream from  the  place  for  some  two  miles  the  Turkish 
bank  is  steep,  in  places  quite  precipitous;  above  the  crags 
are  slopes  covered  with  gardens  and  vineyards,  leading  up 
to  a  bare  ridge  forming  the  sky-line.  The  precipice  ends 
in  a  deep  narrow  depression  leading  up  from  a  little  cove 
formed  by  the  affluence  of  a  small  stream.  At  the  head 
of  this  valley  was  a  small  camp  of  Turkish  soldiers,  and 
above  the  camp,  on  the  sky-line,  was  a  battery  of  heavy 
guns.  Between  the  cove  and  the  town  were  several  more 
pieces,  and  on  the  height  just  outside  the  town  was  a 
small  earthwork  armed  with  a  few  Krupp  cannon.  In 
the  camp  and  in  the  town  there  was  probably  a  brigade 
of  Turkish  soldiers,  not  more.     All  this,  you  will  under- 


26  Czar  and  Stiltan 

stand,  was  ascertained  later  after  the  Russians  had 
crossed. 

About  Simnitza  the  Roumanian  bank  is  high ;  but  be- 
tween it  and  the  main  Danube,  which  here  flows  close 
to  the  Turkish  bank,  was  a  broad  tract  in  places 
wooded  with  low  scrub,  elsewhere  partly  of  green  meadow, 
partly  of  tenacious  mud,  the  whole  just  emerging  from 
inundation.  This  flat  was  cut  off  from  Simnitza  by  a  nar- 
row branch  of  the  river,  so  that  it  was  really  an  island. 
A  raised  road  and  bridge  leading  from  the  town  across  the 
flats  to  the  landing-place  on  the  main  Danube  had  been 
destroyed  by  the  winter  floods.  The  Danube  between 
Simnitza  and  Sistova  was  at  this  time  about  i,6oo  yards 
wide  and  had  a  very  rapid  flow.  It  was  necessary  for  the 
Russians  to  gain  access  to  the  isolated  flats  by  a  pontoon 
bridge  across  the  narrow  arm.  The  Turkish  bank  over- 
looks the  Roumanian,  and  it  was  therefore  impossible  to 
bring  troops  forward  from  Simnitza  in  daylight.  The 
crossing,  we  were  told,  was  to  be  in  the  nature  of  a  sur- 
prise, and  it  was  therefore  necessary  to  postpone  the 
forward  movement  until  after  nightfall.  Dragomiroff's 
division  had  the  honour  of  the  advance,  and  it  was  ex- 
pected to  make  a  footing  on  the  Turkish  bank  by  daylight. 
Mirski  with  the  other  division  was  to  make  a  night  march 
and  be  at  Simnitza  in  the  early  morning  to  support  and 
follow  the  sister  division.  The  Grand  Duke  Nicholas  had 
announced  that  he  would  take  no  denial ;  the  river  had 
to  be  crossed  on  the  night  between  the  26th  and  27th,  cost 
what  it  might.  The  waters  might  be  reddened  but  they 
must  be  traversed. 

With  the  darkness  Dragomiroff  began  his  dispositions. 


The  Crossing  of  the  Danube  27 

The  pontoons  were  launched  in  a  creek  above  Simnitza, 
and  were  floated  down  the  main  stream  to  the  point  of 
embarkation.  In  all  there  were  some  two  hundred  pon- 
toons, boats,  and  rafts,  with  four  battalions  of  pontoniers 
to  work  them.  Forty  guns  were  placed  in  position  on  the 
northern  bank  of  the  main  river,  to  cover  the  crossing  and 
silence  the  enemy's  guns.  The  division  numbered  about 
15,000  men  all  told.  The  embarkation  began  about  mid- 
night, and  about  an  hour  later  the  first  detachment  of  craft 
put  out  from  the  shore  and  rowed  towards  the  little  cove 
I  have  already  mentioned.  It  was  a  strange,  weird  time. 
The  darkness  was  so  dense  that  Villiers  and  myself,  close 
as  we  were,  could  scarcely  see  each  other ;  and  the  oppo- 
site bank  was  only  just  to  be  discerned,  looming  black 
and  dark  up  against  the  hardly  less  black  and  sullen  sky. 
Stumbling  forward  through  mud  and  over  roots,  we  struck 
against  something  like  a  wall,  yet  the  wall  was  soft  and 
warm.  It  was  a  line  of  soldiers,  silent  and  motionless  till 
the  time  should  come  to  move.  Not  a  light  was  per- 
mitted, not  even  a  cigar  was  allowed  to  be  smoked. 
When  men  spoke  at  all  it  was  in  whispers,  and  there  was 
only  a  soft  hum  of  low  talk,  almost  drowned  in  the  gurgle 
of  the  Danube  and  broken  often  by  the  launching  of  a 
pontoon-boat.  I  could  dimly  discern  General  Dragomiroff, 
mud  almost  to  the  waist,  directing  the  marshalling  of  the 
boats  close  to  the  water's  edge.  The  stalwart  linesmen  of 
Yolchine's  brigade  were  manning  the  boats  as  they  were 
launched.  We  got,  or  rather  took,  a  passage  in  one  of 
the  earlier  boats  which  put  out.  The  strong  strokes  of 
the  sailors  shot  it  out  into  the  stream.  We  could  faintly 
discern,  across  the  broad  swirl  of  waters,  the  crags  of  the 


28  Czar  and  Sultan 

Turkish  bank  and  the  steep  slope  above.  What  if  the 
Turks  were  there  in  force  ?  A  grim  precipice  yonder,  to 
carry  at  the  bayonet-point  in  the  teeth  of  a  determined 
enemy !  And  an  enemy  was  there  sure  enough,  and  on 
the  alert.  There  was  a  flash  out  of  the  gloom,  and  the 
near  whistle  and  scream  of  a  shell  thrilled  us  as  it  passed 
over  us  and  burst  among  the  men  in  the  willows  behind 
us.  Shell  after  shell  followed  —  from  due  opposite,  from 
higher  up,  and  from  the  knoll  above  which  could  be 
vaguely  traced  the  slim  outline  of  a  minaret.  The  shells 
were  falling  and  bursting  on  the  surface  of  the  Danube. 
They  splashed  us  with  the  spray  they  raised;  their  jagged 
splinters  flew  yelling  by  us.  There  was  no  shelter ;  we 
were  to  stand  here  on  the  pontoon,  this  densely-packed 
mass  of  men,  and  take  what  fortune  Heaven  might  send 
us.  The  surface  of  the  Danube,  flecked  with  bursting 
shells,  was  flecked  too  with  craft  crowded  to  the  gunwales. 
There  was  a  crash,  the  splintering  of  wood  and  the  riving 
of  iron,  there  on  our  starboard  quarter :  a  double  pontoon 
laden  with  guns  and  gunners  had  been  struck  by  a  shell. 
It  heaved  heavily  twice,  then  its  stern  rose  out  of  the 
water  ;  there  were  wild  cries  —  a  confused  turmoil  of  men 
and  horses  struggling  in  the  water ;  the  guns  sank  and 
drowning  men  drifted  by  us  on  the  current  down  to  their 
death.  From  out  the  trees  fringing  the  little  cove  for 
which  we  were  heading  there  belched  forth  now  volley 
after  volley  of  musketry.  Several  men  of  our  company 
were  down  ere  our  craft  touched  the  Danube  shore.  As 
we  tumbled  out  of  our  boat  with  the  Turkish  bullets 
whistling  above  our  heads,  the  command  was  to  take 
cover  close  to  the  shore.     We  squatted  down  in  the  thick 


The  Crossing  of  the  Danube  29 

glutinous  slime  under  the  low  overhanging  bank.  Already 
dead  and  wounded  men  lay  here  thick  among  the  living. 
Yolchine,  the  fiery  little  commander  of  the  advance  brigade, 
had  his  orders,  it  seemed,  only  to  throw  out  skirmishers  in 
the  meantime,  and  he  was  in  a  white-heat  of  eagerness  to 
be  advancing  in  greater  strength.  Skobeleff  had  come 
across  just  at  streak  of  dawn,  and  he  too  was  burning 
to  act ;  but  it  appeared  that  the  orders  were  that  nothing 
serious  was  to  be  attempted  until  General  Dragomiroff 
himself  should  have  arrived.  He  came  about  half-past 
four  when  it  was  almost  full  daylight,  and  he  seemed  to 
be  for  the  moment  in  rather  a  hesitating  mood.  We  were 
within  hearing  of  the  colloquy  between  him  and  Skobeleff 
—  Yolchine  had  joined  his  skirmishers  a  little  way  up  the 
valley.  Dragomiroff  was  an  old  soldier,  but  he  had  never 
seen  any  fighting  before  this  morning.  He  was  evidently 
nervous,  said  he  did  not  much  like  the  look  of  things, 
expressed  his  belief  that  the  Turks  were  in  overwhelming 
strength,  and  remarked  that  as  a  surprise  the  movement 
was  a  failure.  "What  should  we  do,  think  you.?"  he 
asked  of  Skobeleff—  "You  have  had  much  experience  in 
actual  warfare."  Skobeleff's  answer  was  short  and  to 
the  point.  "  Attack  without  delay,"  he  answered  :  "  and 
let  me  lead  !  "  In  ten  minutes  more  a  man  in  a  white  coat 
was  scrambling  up  the  precipitous  left  bank  of  the  Tekir- 
Dere  valley,  with  a  whole  regiment  of  eager  infantrymen 
at  his  back.  During  the  summer  campaign  the  Russian 
troops  marched  and  camped  in  white  canvas  clothing, 
more  or  less  dingy  ;  but  they  always  put  on  their  uniform 
coats  of  dark  cloth  to  fight  in.  One  might  imagine  that 
they  "dressed"  for  the  fray  as  the  duellists  used  to  do; 


30  Czar  and  Sulta7i 

but  it  was  a  more  practical  reason  which  actuated  the 
Russian  soldier.  The  Russian  ambulance  service  was  not 
very  alert,  and  it  was  probable  enough  that  wounded  men 
might  lie  long  before  being  removed.  The  cloth  coats 
were  warmer  than  the  canvas  blouses  for  wounded  men 
lying  out  in  the  chilly  night  season.  One  of  Skobeleff's 
many  singularities  was  that  he  scented  himself  for  a  battle  ; 
and  no  matter  what  the  weather  he  made  it  a  point  to  go 
into  action  in  a  spotless  white  frock-coat  with  all  his  deco- 
rations on.  He  always  rode  white  chargers.  He  would 
not  have  it  that  there  was  any  swagger  in  this ;  his 
explanation  was  racy  of  the  nature  of  the  man.  "  I  do 
this  simply,"  said  he  once,  "  in  order  that  my  fellows  can 
see  where  I  am  and  know  whither  to  follow."  And  all 
this  stirring  morning  as  Villiers  and  I  watched  the  scene, 
from  the  moment  that  Skobeleff's  order  echoed  from  flank 
to  flank — "  Get  up,  brothers,  and  follow  me  !  "  —  he  was 
always  being  followed  eagerly  for  the  simple  reason  that 
he  was  always  leading. 

About  lo  o'clock  Dragomiroff's  2nd  Brigade  was  across 
the  river  as  well  as  his  Rifle  Brigade,  and  then  he  marched 
on  Sistova,  took  it  in  reverse,  silenced  the  Turkish  batteries, 
and  by  2  p.m.  he  entered  the  town.  The  Turkish  troops, 
who  had  made  a  pretty  stout  resistance  considering  the 
disparity  in  strength,  were  in  full  retreat,  some  on  Tirnova, 
some  on  Nicopolis.  By  nightfall  there  were  25,000  Rus- 
sian soldiers  on  the  Turkish  bank  and  the  passage  of  the 
Danube  was  assured.  The  business  had  not  cost  the 
Russians  very  serious  losses.  Their  total  casualties  were 
about  820  officers  and  men  ;  and  of  these  over  600 
belonged  to  the   ist  Brigade,  which  under  Yolchine  and 


The  Crossing  of  the  Danube 


31 


Skobeleff  had  done  the  hard  fighting  east  of  the  creek 
early  in  the  morning.  Among  the  slightly  wounded  was 
the  young  Grand  Duke  Nicholas  Nicolaievitch,  the  son 
of  the  Grand  Duke  Nicholas  Commander-in-Chief  of  the 
army. 

Mr.  Villiers  had  been  sketching  steadily  under  fire  from 
daylight  until  near  noon.  We  recrossed  to  Simnitza,  where 
he  made  up  his  packet  for  the  Graphic  and  sent  me  off 
with  it  on  horseback  to  the  Bucharest  post-office,  unless  I 
could  find  a  trustworthy  messenger  in  Alexandria,  in  which 
case  I  was  to  return  at  once  to  Simnitza.  On  the  way  to 
Alexandria  I  met  General  Skobeleff  senior,  marching  down 
on  Simnitza  at  the  head  of  his  Cossack  division.  I  stopped 
the  old  gentleman  to  tell  him  of  the  bravery  and  the  safety 
of  his  gallant  son.  He  was  moved  to  tears,  solemnly 
alighted  from  his  horse,  threw  both  arms  round  my  neck 
and  kissed  me  warmly  on  both  cheeks  with  loud  sobs. 
The  good  old  general  always  wore  a  huge  diamond  ring 
on  the  thumb  of  his  right  hand,  and  I  vividly  remember 
how  this  ring  kept  scratching  furrows  in  the  back  of  my 
neck  while  its  owner  was  hugging  me  with  an  emotion 
which  I  respected,  but  with  a  little  of  the  effusiveness  of 
which  I  would  cheerfully  have  dispensed.  When  Skobeleff 
senior  had  in  this  friendly  way  blown  his  nose  on  most  of 
the  upper  part  of  my  person,  he  remounted  and  set  off  at 
a  canter  for  Simnitza,  eager  to  see  and  congratulate  his 
son.  They  were  rather  a  droll  pair.  There  had  recently 
been  a  little  coolness  between  them  ;  for  the  old  gentleman 
was  close-fisted,  while  the  son  was  rather  a  spendthrift 
and  had  a  cheerful  habit  of  regarding  his  own  and  the 
paternal  purse  in  the  nature  of  a  joint-stock  concern  —  a 


32  Czar  and  Sultan 

view  which  Skobeleff  senior  did  not  wholly  share.  Both 
now  and  later  the  father,  who  had  ambitions  of  his  own, 
had  a  half-serious,  half-comic  jealousy  of  his  son's  rapid 
promotion  and  brilliant  military  reputation,  and  was  drolly 
savage  when  before  Plevna  he  found  himself  actually 
under  that  young  chief's  command.  He  was  especially 
mad  in  a  half-serious  way  when  Michael  threatened  in 
mock  solemnity  to  put  papa  under  arrest  unless  he  forked 
out  the  money  to  pay  for  the  irreverent  youth's  outfit  on 
promotion  to  lieutenant-general.  But  the  father  neverthe- 
less had  a  great  pride  in  the  son,  and  I  more  than  once 
noticed  the  shaggy  veteran  sitting  silent  while  he  watched 
in  a  sort  of  complacent  contentment  the  rapid  play  of  the 
younger  man's  handsome  features  as  he  conversed  eagerly 
on  some  subject  which  exceptionally  interested  him. 

At  Alexandria  I  was  fortunate  enough  to  find  a  man 
on  whom  I  could  rely  to  carry  Villiers'  budget  on  to 
Bucharest.  When  I  got  back  to  Simnitza,  in  the  evening 
I  found  the  Skobeleffs  at  loggerheads,  Villiers  sitting  with 
them  and  amused  beyond  measure  at  the  colloquy.  It 
appeared  that  no  sooner  had  they  greeted  each  other  than 
Skobeleff  junior  zealously  urged  on  his  parent  that  he 
should  swim  his  whole  division  of  Cossacks  across  the 
Danube.  The  old  man  refused.  It  was  another  thing, 
he  said,  if  there  were  an  emergency  and  there  were  no 
other  means  of  crossing ;  but  for  the  moment  there  was 
no  urgency  and  in  a  couple  of  days  the  bridge  would  be 
ready  —  and  what,  pray,  was  the  use  of  a  bridge  if  not  to 
cross  by .?  The  son  was  very  angry  at  the  paternal  refusal 
to  fall  in  with  his  proposal.  His  contention  was  that  Cau- 
casian Cossacks  were  fit  to  go  anywhere  and  do  anything, 


The  Crossing  of  tJie  D aim  be  33 


and  that  this  glorious  opportunity  for  proving  their  capac- 
ities should  not  be  lost.  Since  the  father  was  obstinate 
the  junior  Skobeleff  determined  that  on  the  following 
morning  he  would  swim  the  Danube  himself,  along  with  his 
special  henchman,  a  wild  Kirghis  lad  whom  he  had  found 
a  child  in  his  dead  mother's  lap  after  a  Turkestan  skirmish 
and  had  adopted  —  a  quaint,  profane  imp  in  purple-and- 
white  dimity  who  never  left  his  master  in  the  thickest  of 
the  fight,  and  who  was  perpetually  getting  flesh-wounds 
at  which  he  laughed  —  and  along  also  with  his  personal 
escort  of  three  Cossack  orderlies.  He  suggested  further 
that  I  should  be  of  the  party,  and,  it  struck  me,  seemed 
rather  surprised  when  I  consented.  It  was  not  much  of 
an  exploit  for  one  who  had  been  swimming  the  Danube 
almost  as  soon  as  he  could  walk,  sometimes  without  a  horse 
at  all,  sometimes  in  the  saddle  and  as  often  as  not  hanging 
on  by  the  tail.  Early  next  morning  the  little  company 
started.  Skobeleff  swam  his  first  charger,  a  noble  Turco- 
man chestnut  which  he  had  brought  from  Central  Asia  and 
which  was  later  killed  in  the  battle  before  Loftcha  early  in 
September.  Skobeleff,  the  Kirghis,  and  myself  got  safely 
across.  The  three  orderlies  were  found  some  days  later 
on  an  island  down-stream  and  were  buried  there.  It  was 
generally  considered  that  the  result  proved  that  in  this 
affair  the  father  showed  more  sound  sense  than  did  the 
son.     But  then  the  father  had  made  his  career. 

It  was  on  the  afternoon  of  that  same  day  that  for  the 
first  time  I  saw  the  late  Czar  —  a  man  of  commanding 
stature  and  fine  soldierly  bearing,  but  with  a  cast  of  mel- 
ancholy in  his  handsome  wistful  face.  He  came  across 
the    Danube   to    visit   and    thank    the    troops  which   had 


34  Czar  and  Sultan 

achieved  the  passage.  In  front  of  the  long  massive  line 
drawn  up  on  the  crest  of  the  slope  east  of  Sistova  in  wait- 
ing for  the  coming  of  the  Great  White  Czar,  stood  three 
chiefs — Dragomiroff,  the  commander  of  the  division  with 
which  was  the  honour  of  the  crossing ;  Yolchine,  the  chief 
of  the  brigade  which  had  led  and  which  had  borne  the 
brunt  of  the  fighting  and  the  loss ;  and  young  Skobeleff, 
who  had  shown  the  way  to  all  and  sundry.  The  Czar 
embraced  Dragomiroff  in  the  Russian  fashion  and  gave 
him  the  Cross  of  St.  George  ;  he  shook  hands  with  gallant 
little  Yolchine  and  gave  him  too  a  St.  George  to  add  to 
the  many  decorations  already  on  his  breast.  Then  he  came 
to  Skobeleff  and  all  men  watched  the  scene  intently,  for 
it  was  notorious  that  Skobeleff  was  in  disfavour ;  yet  there 
was  the  belief  that  his  conduct  of  the  previous  morning 
might  well  have  dispelled  that  disfavour.  For  a  moment 
Alexander  hesitated  as  the  two  tall,  proud,  soldierly  men 
confronted  each  other ;  one  could  trace  in  his  features  the 
struggle  between  prejudice  and  admiration.  It  was  over 
in  a  minute — and  the  wrong  way  for  Skobeleff.  The 
Czar  frowned,  turned  short  on  his  heel,  and  strode  reso- 
lutely away  without  a  word  or  a  gesture  of  notice.  No 
doubt  there  was  still  in  his  memory  the  poison  of  the 
calumnies  which  had  blackened  in  his  eyes  the  character 
of  the  finest  soldier  in  his  realm.  Skobeleff,  for  his  part, 
bowed,  flushed  scarlet,  then  turned  pale  and  set  his  teeth 
hard.  It  was  a  flagrant  insult  in  the  very  face  of  the 
army,  and  a  gross  injustice  ;  but  Skobeleff  took  it  in  a  proud 
silence  that  seemed  to  me  very  grand.  Nor  did  I  ever 
hear  him  allude  to  the  slight.  It  was  not  long  before  he 
could  afford  to  be  magnanimous.     This  despite  was  done 


ALEXANDER    II. 


The  Crossing  of  tJie  Daiiube  35 

him  on  the  28th  of  June.  On  the  4th  September  Skobeleff, 
after  having  heaped  exploit  upon  exploit,  led  the  assault 
on  the  Turkish  position  at  Loftcha,  and  drove  the  enemy- 
out  of  that  strong  place,  not  less  by  his  splendid  daring 
than  by  the  skilfulness  of  the  tactics  he  had  devised.  On 
the  following  night  at  his  dinner-table  at  the  Gorni-Studen 
headquarters,  the  Emperor  stood  up  and  bade  the  com- 
pany pledge  him  in  the  toast  of  "  Skobeleff,  the  hero  of 
Loftcha  !  "  It  is  not  given  to  many  men  to  earn  a  revenge 
so  full  and  so  grand  as  that. 


CHAPTER  III 

GOURKO'S  RAID  ACROSS  THE  BALKANS 

MACGAHAN  turned  up  at  Sistova  a  couple  of  days 
after  the  crossing  of  the  Danube  there.  The 
Turkish  inhabitants  of  that  town  had  fled  on  the  day  of 
the  crossing,  with  everything  that  they  could  carry  away 
at  short  notice.  Their  Bulgarian  townsfolk  had  pillaged 
them  as  they  went  away,  then  had  stolen  all  portables  left 
in  the  Turkish  quarter,  and  had  finally  wrecked  it  almost 
into  tinder ;  at  the  same  time  defiling  the  mosques  in  the 
most  disgusting  manner.  Villiers  and  myself  had  tem- 
porarily established  ourselves  in  what  had  been  the  harem 
of  a  Turkish  gentleman,  since  the  place  had  at  least  a  roof 
and  part  of  a  floor.  MacGahan  joined  us  there,  and  told 
us  that  an  expedition  to  cross  the  Balkans  was  being 
organised  under  the  command  of  General  Gourko  and  that 
he  had  obtained  permission  to  accompany  it.  He  desired 
that  I  should  go  with  him,  in  case  of  opportunities  which 
misfht  offer  for  me  to  return  to  Bucharest  with  instalments 
of  his  correspondence.  I  regarded  myself  as  in  effect 
belonging  to  MacGahan,  who  had  been  my  earliest  friend 
and  whom  I  greatly  loved  and  honoured.  Another  expedi- 
tion was  soon  to  start  eastward  towards  Bjela  which  Villiers 
wished  to  accompany ;  and  it  was  finally  arranged  that  I 
should  go  with  the  latter  to  Bjela,  and  then  ride  southward 

36 


Gourkos  Raid  across  the  Balkans  2)7 

to  Tirnova  at  the  foot  of  the  mountains,  where  I  should 
find  Gourko's  command  and  rejoin  MacGahan. 

Bjela  is  a  pretty  little  town  on  the  river  Jantra,  about 
midway  between  Sistova  and  Rustchuk.  I  was  acquainted 
with  most  of  its  inhabitants,  and  it  pleased  me  to  go  there 
again  after  having  been  for  some  months  away  from  kins- 
folk and  local  friends.  MacGahan,  who  had  all  the 
information  he  asked  for  from  the  Imperial  headquarters, 
told  us  that  two  corps  under  the  Cesarevich's  command 
were  to  march  eastward  to  cover  the  Russian  left  flank 
from  the  Danube  to  the  Balkans  against  the  great  accumu- 
lation of  Turkish  troops  known  to  be  occupying  the  region 
of  Eastern  Bulgaria,  spoken  of  as  the  "  Quadrilateral " 
because  at  each  of  the  four  corners  of  this  area  there  was 
a  Turkish  fortress.  The  advance  of  this  movement  con- 
sisted of  the  cavalry  division  of  the  12th  Corps.  Its  chief 
was  General  Baron  Driesen ;  the  hussar  brigade  was 
commanded  by  General  Stahl  von  Holstein ;  the  dragoon 
brigade  by  a  delightful  old  gentleman.  General  Arnoldi, 
with  whom  Mr.  Villiers  struck  up  a  prompt  friendship  since 
both  were  enthusiastic  artists. 

The  twenty  miles'  ride  between  dusty  and  crowded 
Sistova  and  quiet  rural  Bjela  was  delightful,  through  a 
rich  grassy  country  studded  with  farm-houses  and  snug 
villages  nestling  in  the  little  hollows  where  the  streams 
ran  and  all  embowered  in  foliage.  The  mass  of  the 
population  had  probably  been  always  Bulgarians,  to  whom 
belonged  the  fertile  farms  and  pretty  gardens.  Now  the 
whole  region  was  Bulgarian  pure  and  simple,  since  the 
Turkish  inhabitants  with  rare  exceptions  had  .^one  away 
bag  and  baggage,  either  southward  across  the  Balkans  or 


■28  Czar  and  Sultan 

eastward  into  the  Quadrilateral  across  the  Lorn.  Towards 
evening  —  the  day,  I  remember,  was  July  5th  —  the  head 
of  the  cavalry  column  was  in  sight  of  the  swift-flowing 
stream  of  the  Jantra.  At  our  feet  lay  the  rich  valley 
waving  with  golden  barley,  the  fields  intersected  by  the 
sparkling  river  on  whose  banks  hung  village  after  village ; 
in  the  mouth  of  a  little  cross  valley  on  the  further  side  of 
the  Jantra  were  seen  the  red-tiled  roofs  of  Bjela  half 
hidden  among  foliage.  But  we  were  not  yet  in  Bjela. 
Overhanging  the  river  on  the  further  side  was  an  upland 
plateau  the  face  of  which  was  quite  precipitous,  and  there 
were  hostile  indications  about  the  river-villages  and  on  the 
uplands.  A  squadron  galloped  down  the  slope,  dashed 
through  the  stream,  and  was  just  in  time  to  cut  down  a 
few  plundering  Bashi-Bazouks.  A  detachment  of  dragoons 
dismounted,  shouldered  carbines,  fixed  bayonets,  and  fol- 
lowed General  Arnoldi  across  the  bridge  and  on  to  the 
plateau;  the  mass  of  the  division  followed  presently. 
The  inhabitants  brought  out  bread  and  salt;  the  priest 
who  bore  the  cross  tendered  it  for  Arnoldi  to  kiss,  as  the 
people  stood  by  with  bared  heads  and  eager  eyes.  I  was 
promptly  recognised,  and  Villiers  and  myself  were  soon 
among  friends  in  a  pleasant  room  looking  out  into  a 
pretty  garden. 

Villiers  had  been  working  half  the  night,  and  in  the 
morning  he  sent  me  back  to  Sistova  with  his  sketches  to 
be  forwarded  to  Bucharest.  I  could  find  no  trustworthy 
messenger  and  so  went  on  myself.  Travelling  continu- 
ously I  returned  to  Bjela  by  the  evening  of  the  7th,  to  find 
there  a  strange  situation.  On  the  previous  night  the  little 
town  had  been  looted  severely  by  the  troops  of  the  nation- 


Gourkos  Raid  across  the  Balkans  39 

ality  which  proclaimed  its  mission  to  rescue  the  Bulga- 
rians from  the  Turkish  oppression.  An  infantry  division 
had  followed  Driesen's  cavalry,  and  about  sundown  of  the 
6th  Bjela  was  full  of  Russian  infantry  stragglers.  These 
broke  into  and  plundered  a  baker's  shop.  Two  officers 
who  were  sitting  with  Villiers  hurried  down  and  drove 
away  the  plunderers,  beating  them  with  the  flats  of  their 
swords.  They  heard  a  tumult  near  by,  and  shrieks  of 
women ;  and  as  the  officers  approached  a  number  of  sol- 
diers laden  with  plunder  jumped  from  windows.  The 
town  was  ultimately  cleared  ;  but  the  precaution  was  neg- 
lected of  sending  protecting  patrols  down  into  it  and  so 
trouble  recommenced. 

About  I  a.m.,  Villiers  sleeping  in  his  room  was  roused 
by  the  noise  of  woodwork  being  shattered  outside  in  the 
streets.  Looking  out  he  saw  by  the  blazing  billets  carried 
torchwise  by  the  soldiers,  that  plundering  was  going  on 
apace  to  right  and  left.  Women  were  shrieking,  not  be- 
cause of  any  violence  offered  them  but  because  of  the  ruin 
of  their  property.  Soldiers  were  revelling  in  a  wine-shop 
which  had  been  broken  open,  and  wine  was  running  from 
the  casks.  Over  the  way  a  butcher's  shop  was  being 
cleared  out,  soldiers  tearing  at  the  meat.  The  women  of 
the  house  addressed  themselves  to  Villiers,  but  he  was 
powerless.  All  was  licence,  and  for  the  time  the  Russian 
soldier,  ordinarily  quiet,  orderly  and  respectful,  was  a  dan- 
gerous person.  Presently  a  knocking  was  heard  below, 
and  the  people  of  the  house  said  that  soldiers  were  break- 
ing into  the  cellar  which  opened  from  the  street.  By- 
and-by  there  was  a  wild  tumult  about  the  door  and  a 
hammering  for  admittance,  which  brought  Villiers  down 


40  Czar  and  Sultan 

to  open  it.  And  now  came  the  comic  element  in  a  scene 
which  was  grim  and  ugly  enough.  The  proverb  that 
stolen  goods  do  not  prosper  had  come  home  to  the  Rus- 
sian plunderers  with  unpleasant  promptitude.  As  Villiers 
opened  the  door  there  stood  four  of  them  in  the  torchlight, 
clamouring  wildly,  with  bottles  in  their  hands,  a  strange 
blackness  about  their  lips,  and  a  curious  pungent  smell 
pervading  the  atmosphere.  It  seemed  that  the  owner  of 
the  houses  was  a  woollen-dyer  who  used  vitriol  in  his 
business,  and  there  were  a  number  of  bottles  in  his  cellar 
containing  that  fluid.  Of  these  the  soldiers  who  had 
invaded  the  cellar  knocked  off  the  necks  and  proceeded 
to  imbibe  the  contents.  The  vitriol  was  greatly  diluted 
and  the  soldiers  must  have  had  cast-iron  throats.  As  it 
was,  their  lips  and  mouths  were  discoloured,  their  clothes, 
hands  and  boots  were  burnt,  and  the  men  were  half  mad 
with  rage  and  pain.  They  insisted  that  the  house-master 
was  a  Turk  who  had  stored  a  quantity  of  devils'  drink 
in  wine-bottles  wherewithal  to  poison  his  Russian  enemies. 
With  wild  cries  and  threats  they  forced  bottles  into  his 
hands  and  swore  he  should  drink.  He  resisted  success- 
fully but  had  his  hands  and  clothes  badly  burned.  Yet 
they  had  a  certain  sense  of  discipline  and  order  left.  They 
recognised  the  "  correspondent "  badge  on  Villiers'  arm 
and  did  not  lay  hands  on  him. 

After  daybreak  the  work  of  plunder  went  on  with 
greater  vivacity  than  ever ;  and  Villiers  went  up  into  the 
camp,  found  a  colonel,  and  reported  to  him  the  state  of 
the  town.  A  few  minutes  later  a  strong  picket  was 
marching  down  into  it  with  Villiers  for  guide.  Its  officers 
did   their  work  thoroughly.     Every  marauder  met  on   his 


Gourkds  Raid  across  the  Balkans  41 

way  to  the  camp  was  closely  searched.  If  he  was  carrying 
liquor,  it  was  spilled  ;  the  ofificer  thrashed  him  and  then 
made  him  a  prisoner.  A  strategic  movement  bagged  the 
plunderers  of  a  whole  street,  some  thirty-five  in  number, 
all  of  whom  were  duly  searched,  thrashed,  and  made  pris- 
oners. A  permanent  guard  was  established  in  the  town. 
It  was  said  that  the  townspeople  would  receive  compensa- 
tion for  the  damage  done ;  but  all  the  same  the  first  rift  in 
the  cordiality  between  the  Bulgarians  and  Russians  had 
occurred,  and  the  mutual  good  feeling  never  was  restored. 
You  remember  that  I  have  just  spoken  of  the  "corre- 
spondents' badge."  At  first,  I  believe,  the  idea  was  that 
they  should  wear  a  certain  uniform.  But,  as  I  was  told 
by  MacGahan,  they  objected  to  that,  chiefly,  he  under- 
stood, because  the  proposed  uniform  was  a  bright  canary 
colour.  Then  they  were  numbered  and  served  out  each 
with  a  huge  brass  badge  with  a  number  stamped  on  it ;  the 
badge  to  be  fastened  on  the  left  arm  of  the  wearer  above 
the  elbow.  This  badge  was  exactly  similar  to  that  you 
may  have  seen  in  London,  worn  by  the  licenced  messen- 
gers who  stand  at  the  corners  of  streets.  The  French 
correspondents'  sense  of  the  beautiful  was,  however,  out- 
raged by  this  unpicturesque  distinguishing  mark.  So  at 
their  instance  was  substituted  a  more  dainty  style  of 
brassard,  with  the  Russian  eagle  in  silver  embroidery  on  a 
ground  of  yellow  silk  and  the  word  "  Correspondent "  in 
Russian  characters  embroidered  beneath  the  eagle.  The 
written  permission  was  engrossed  on  the  back  of  a  photo- 
graph of  the  correspondent  to  whom  it  was  granted,  which 
photograph  was  duly  stamped  in  brown  wax  with  the  seal 
of  the  Commander-in-Chief's  headquarters.     A  duplicate 


42  Czar  and  Sultan 

photograph  was  inserted  in  a  "  Correspondents'  Album  " 
kept  by  the  commandant  of  the  headquarters.  Once  I 
had  an  opportunity  of  seeing  this  album ;  there  were 
about  eighty  photographs  in  it,  and  I  am  bound  to  own 
that  it  was  not  an  overwhelming  testimony  to  the  good  looks 
of  the  war-correspondent  profession.  MacGahan,  who 
could  do  anything  he  liked  at  headquarters,  got  me  a 
badge  and  a  permission  in  the  character  of  his  assistant, 
and  I  never  experienced  any  difficulty  in  going  anywhere 
I  chose  while  I  had  the  brassard  on  my  arm  and  the  per- 
mission in  my  pocket. 

Villiers  proposed  to  remain  with  the  12th  Corps  which 
was  slowly  moving  eastward  towards  Rustchuk  —  he  could 
not  tear  himself  away  from  his  friend,  old  General  Arnoldi. 
I  was  due  to  join  MacGahan  at  Tirnova,  and  I  rode  from 
Bjela  to  the  latter  place  on  July  9th.  I  found  Mac- 
Gahan comfortably  quartered  in  the  house  of  a  Bulgarian 
widow  in  the  main  street  of  Tirnova.  It  was  not  his  first 
visit  to  that  town  ;  he  had  been  there  the  summer  before 
when  engaged  in  his  "  atrocities  "  investigations,  and  had 
then  been  the  guest  of  the  widow  and  her  pretty  daughter 
Maritza.  His  room,  which  I  shared,  was  a  spacious,  lofty 
apartment  on  the  first  floor  looking  down  on  to  the  street ; 
it  had  a  divan  along  all  its  four  sides,  the  floor  was  covered 
with  fine  old  Eastern  rugs,  and  in  one  corner  was  the 
shrine  or  ikon  with  a  lamp  constantly  burning  in  front  of 
it.  Next  morning  Gourko's  hussar  brigade  came  prancing 
through  the  town,  bands  playing,  colours  flying,  swords 
drawn  ;  Prince  Eugene  of  Leuchtenberg  curveting  at  the 
head  of  his  command,  and  every  officer  and  every  trooper 
making  the  most  of   himself   in   the   eyes   of    the   "  good 


Gourkos  Raid  across  the  Balkajts  43 

brothers"  who  were  being  rescued  by  the  Russians  from 
"Turkish  tyranny."  We  were  all  looking  out  of  win- 
dow at  the  brave  show,  when  MacGahan  suddenly  gave 
a  great  shout,  dashed  down  into  the  street,  and  was 
presently  seen  to  be  dragging  a  hussar  officer  off  his  horse 
by  main  force.  This  feat  being  accomplished,  the  pair 
were  visibly  hugging  each  other  with  great  warmth.  A 
word  to  the  colonel,  a  direction  to  a  trooper  to  look  after 
the  officer's  horse,  and  then  MacGahan  led  his  friend  up- 
stairs into  the  saloon,  and  introduced  the  hussar  to  the 
widow  and  her  daughter.  He  certainly  was  one  of  the 
handsomest  men  I  had  ever  seen  —  tall  and  square-shoul- 
dered, with  a  well-poised  head,  regular  features,  laughing 
blue  eyes,  and  a  winning  smile.  There  were  lines  in  his 
face  which  told  of  dissipation  and  a  wild  reckless  life;  but 
they  did  not  greatly  mar  his  attractiveness.  It  appeared 
that  MacGahan  and  this  Russian  officer,  whose  name  was 
Andreiovich,  had  been  close  comrades  in  the  Khivan 
campaign  of  1873.  His  career  had  been  a  strange  one, 
or  rather  it  would  have  been  so  in  any  other  service  than 
the  Russian.  Of  a  noble  family,  he  had  begun  his  mili- 
tary life  in  the  Imperial  Guards.  Three  years  of  St. 
Petersburg  dissipation  ruined  him  outright,  and  as  was  — 
and  probably  still  is  —  the  custom  in  regard  to  officers  of 
the  Guard  who  have  "  expended "  themselves,  he  was 
sent  to  serve  in  the  Army  of  Asia.  For  some  misconduct 
he  had  been  reduced  to  the  ranks  but  had  redeemed  his 
position  by  an  act  of  signal  valour  in  the  Khivan  cam- 
paign ;  and  later  he  had  been  permitted  to  return  to 
Europe  and  take  service  in  the  hussar  regiment  in  which 
he  now  commanded  a  troop.     These  details  about  Andrei- 


44  Czar  and  Sultan 


ovich  MacGahan  gave  me  later,  and  Andreiovich  himself 
was  very  kind  to  me.  Meanwhile,  seated  side  by  side  on 
the  divan,  the  old  comrades  affectionately  recalled  many 
reminiscences  of  their  Khivan  intimacy;  but  I  noticed 
that  the  subject  by  no  means  wholly  engrossed  the 
sprightly  Russian.  Maritza,  the  widow's  daughter,  was  a 
very  pretty  girl  and  she  knew  the  fact  very  well.  She  sat 
over  against  MacGahan  and  Andreiovich,  by  her  musical 
instrument,  occasionally  playing  a  note  and  looking  very 
fascinating.  By-and-by  I  shall  have  something  to  tell 
you,  boys,  about  these  two  which  I  think  will  interest  you. 
Pray  remind  me  of  Andreiovich  and  Maritza  when  I  am 
speaking  about  the  Schipka  Pass,  in  case  I  should  forget 
to  narrate  the  outcome  of  this  apparently  chance  meeting 
between  these  two  young  people. 

General  Gourko  was  a  very  fine  soldier ;  he  was  an  iron 
man,  both  physically  and  mentally.  In  the  coldest  night 
of  the  bitter  Balkan  winter  he  never  wore  a  greatcoat, 
but  rode  in  his  frock-coat  when  every  one  on  his  staff  was 
enveloped  in  heavy  furs.  He  was  sternness  itself,  and 
exacted  much  from  his  men.  They  respected  him  but  did 
not  greatly  love  him  ;  Skobeleff's  men  held  him  in  their 
heart  of  hearts.  It  may  be  said  that  Gourko  was  a  Rus- 
sian Wellington  ;  Skobeleff  a  Russian  Napoleon.  Gourko, 
after  the  death  of  Alexander  II.,  was  made  Governor- 
General  of  Poland,  which  post,  I  believe,  he  still  retains. 
A  couple  of  years  ago  I  met  a  Polish  gentleman  in  Jassy, 
and  asked  him  how  Gourko  was  held  in  Poland.  "  Poland," 
he  replied,  "  has  been  governed  in  its  time  by  some  rare 
devils.  She  has  known  Mouravieff ;  she  has  been  under 
the  gouty  hoof  of  Bariatinski ;  but    Gourko    is  the    most 


Gourkd s  Raid  across  tlie  Balkans  45 

mercilessly  savage  Governor  that  any  living  Pole  can 
remember."  His  command  for  this  trans-Balkan  expedi- 
tion consisted  of  8,000  infantry,  4,000  cavalry,  and  32  guns. 
Starting  from  Sistova  on  the  3rd  July  he  had  marched 
slowly  enough  until  he  reached  the  vicinity  of  Tirnova  on 
the  6th.  He  took  the  ancient  capital  of  Bulgaria  on  the 
7th  with  a  brigade  of  cavalry  and  a  single  battery.  His 
entire  loss  was  two  men.  The  Turkish  garrison,  number- 
ing over  3,500  men,  ran  away  in  panic  towards  Osman 
Bazaar. 

Gourko  quitted  Tirnova  on  the  12th,  having  been  re- 
lieved by  a  division  of  the  8th  Corps.  He  cut  loose  alto- 
gether, carrying  his  supplies  on  pack-horses  and  his  only 
wheeled  vehicles  were  his  artillery.  He  was  to  find  and 
to  cross  by  an  unfrequented  pass  over  the  Balkans  ;  de- 
bouching from  the  mountains  he  was  to  move  westward 
to  Kezanlik  and  attack  the  Schipka  Pass  from  the  south 
on  the  17th,  on  which  day  according  to  the  preconcerted 
arrangement  troops  from  Gabrova  would  co-operate  with 
him  by  attacking  it  from  the  north.  As  I  spoke  both 
Bulgarian  and  Turkish  like  a  native,  MacGahan  lent  me 
to  Prince  Tzeretleff,  to  whom  had  been  confided  the  whole 
of  Gourko's  intelligence  department,  the  pioneering  of 
roads,  discovering  passes,  &c.  While  charged  with  this 
responsibility  the  Prince  held  the  rank  of  Cossack  ser- 
geant, having  been  promoted  from  private  and  transferred 
from  the  dragoons  to  the  Caucasian  Cossacks.  The  roads 
to  the  foot  of  the  Balkan  acclivity  were  easy  enough ;  to 
find  the  unfrequented  pass,  by  the  unexpected  issue  from 
which  of  Gourko's  force  all  Turkey  south  of  the  Balkans 
would    be  suddenly  surprised,  that  was  the  problem.      It 


46  Czar  and  Stiltan 

was  curious  that  what  the  local  people  did  not  know,  we 
found  in  Moltke's  book  describing  the  Russo-Turkish  War 
of  1828-29.  He  refers  to  a  pass  between  the  Schipka 
and  Slievno  passes,  but  speaks  of  it  as  impracticable  for 
an  army.  In  reality  there  are  at  least  three  intermediate 
passes,  but  it  seemed  that  the  pass  of  which  the  Prince 
had  heard  of  by  the  name  of  the  Hainkioj  Pass  was  prob- 
ably the  one  to  which  Moltke  referred ;  and  it  we 
proceeded  to  explore,  disguising  ourselves  as  Bulgarian 
peasants  and  tramping  on  foot.  We  had  very  unpromis- 
ing accounts  of  this  pass.  It  was  rarely  used  either  by 
Turks  or  Bulgarians  because  of  its  reputed  difificulties  and 
because  it  was  said  to  be  a  haunt  of  brigands.  But  we 
found  a  man  who  had  been  through  it  with  an  ox-cart  two 
years  previously.  Where  an  ox-cart  could  go,  Tzeretleff 
argued,  wheeled  guns  could  go.  We  tramped  along  it, 
finding  pleasant  villages  on  the  way  and  a  hearty  welcome 
everywhere.  The  village  of  Voinis,  some  18  miles  south 
of  Tirnova,  lay  snug  in  the  bosom  of  a  delightful  little 
valley.  We  sent  back  word  that  there  was  no  difficulty 
so  far,  and  went  on  15  miles  further  to  Parovci.  The 
track  hereabouts  became  rugged  and  wild  and  the  gorge 
was  narrow  and  extremely  rough.  But  the  pioneers  were 
close  behind  us  making  the  foot-trail  into  a  more  or  less 
decent  road.  Parovci  turned  out  a  nest  of  brigands,  but 
they  proved  not  only  friendly  but  zealous.  Their  chief, 
who  claimed  to  be  a  prince  and  had  swagger  enough  for 
an  emperor, —  the  Czar  sent  him  a  decoration  for  his 
services,  —  was  invaluable  to  us.  The  brigands  went  to 
work  on  a  section  of  the  track  ;  when  the  troops  presently 
passed  they  were  most  helpful  and  kept  the  secret  of  the 


Gourkds  Raid  across  the  Balkans  47 

advance  inviolate.  For  eight  miles  beyond  Parovci  the 
gradient  was  almost  precipitous  and  the  guns  had  to  be 
dragged  by  the  infantry,  the  road  being  much  too  steep 
for  horses  to  be  of  service.  Beyond  the  summit  the  de- 
scent was  both  steep  and  rough  to  the  mouth  at  Hain- 
kioj,  some  12  miles  further  on.  We  tramped  down  to 
within  sight  of  the  village  of  Hainkioj,  where  we  saw, 
not  half  a  mile  distant,  a  Turkish  camp  which  the  local 
Bulgarians  told  us  contained  only  two  companies  of  Turk- 
ish regulars.  Returning  to  Parovci,  we  were  conveyed 
by  our  brigand-in-chief  in  his  araba  back  to  Voinis,  around 
which  village  most  of  Gourko's  force  had  gathered  to  wait 
for  the  word  to  advance.  This  was  on  the  evening  of  the 
1 2th.  Next  morning  the  column,  in  advance  of  which 
Tzeretleff  and  I  trudged  with  an  exhilarating  sense  of 
success,  moved  on  to  Parovci  where  our  brigand-in-chief 
entertained  Gourko  and  his  staff  in  quite  a  sumptuous 
style.  In  the  afternoon  the  head  of  the  column  crossed 
the  divide  and  bivouacked  a  little  way  south  of  the  sum- 
mit. On  the  morning  of  the  14th  General  Ranch  with 
200  Cossacks  surprised  the  little  Turkish  garrison  in  its 
camp  just  inside  the  mouth  of  the  pass.  The  Turks  ran 
off  eastward  to  the  village  of  Tvarditza  at  the  southern 
mouth  of  the  Elena  Pass  where  there  was  also  a  garrison, 
and  the  joint  forces,  some  2,000  men  in  all,  turned  back 
and  had  a  little  fight  with  two  Russian  battalions  which 
were  following.  In  the  end  all  the  Turks  went  east  to 
Slievno,  and  the  Russians  seized  both  camps  full  of  arms 
and  ammunition  with  very  trivial  loss. 

Next  day  Gourko  remained  halted  at  Hainkioj,  assem- 
bling his  troops  as  they  came  out  of  the  defile.     The  only 


48  Czar  and  Sultan 

accident  which  had  occurred  during  the  passage  of  the  Bal- 
kans was  on  the  steep  descent  from  the  summit  where  two 
guns  with  their  teams  rolled  down  into  a  ravine.  Strange 
to  tell,  not  a  horse  was  injured  and  both  guns  and  teams 
were  recovered.  But  poor  MacGahan  had  come  to  grief. 
I  have  already  told  you  that  he  had  been  lame  since  before 
the  war  began ;  the  injured  ankle-joint  had  been  encased 
in  plaster-of-Paris  and  it  was  amazing  how  pluckily  he 
limped  about  with  this  encumbrance.  He  would  not  be 
dissuaded  from  going  with  Gourko's  adventurous  expedi- 
tion. Up  in  the  pass  his  horse  slid  over  a  bank  and  fell 
on  his  rider,  so  that  the  half-set  bone  was  broken  again. 
But  although  now  unable  to  put  foot  to  ground,  MacGahan 
resolutely  declined  to  be  invalided.  He  quietly  had  him- 
self hoisted  on  to  a  gun-carriage  and  so  contrived  to  go 
through  the  whole  raid,  in  the  course  of  which,  helpless 
as  he  was,  he  was  in  the  heart  of  several  actions  and  once 
narrowly  escaped  falling  into  the  hands  of  the  Turks. 
He  was  all  the  same  constantly  cheery  and  full  of  quaint 
humour.  He  would  not  let  me  stay  by  him  on  the  gun- 
carriage,  which  during  the  march  to  Kezanlik  was  mostly 
in  the  rear.  He  gave  me  his  horse  and  bade  me  go  for- 
ward with  the  Cossacks,  see  any  fighting  that  occurred, 
and  bring  the  details  of  it  to  him  to  be  inserted  in  his 
correspondence.  He  told  me,  as  I  have  already  said, 
that  there  was  a  strong  Turkish  force  on  the  summit  of 
the  Schipka  Pass,  and  that  it  had  been  arranged  that  this 
position  was  to  be  attacked  simultaneously  on  the  17th: 
on  the  north  by  troops  advancing  from  Gabrova,  and  on 
the  south  by  Gourko  from  the  village  of  Schipka  at  the 
southern  foot  of  the  pass. 


Gotirkds  Raid  across  the  Balka^ts  49 

Gourko  left  part  of  his  force  to  hold  the  mouth  of  the 
Hainkioj  Pass  in  case  he  should  have  to  retreat  by  that 
route;  and  on  the  morning  of  the  i6th  he  started  on  the 
20  miles'  march  to  Schipka  with  about  8,000  men  and   16 
guns.     At  Uflani,  about  nine  miles  from  Hainkioj,  fight- 
ing began.     Our  road  was  barred  by  some  3,000  Turks 
posted    in    rear   of   a   little  stream.      The  Turks    fought 
splendidly,  that  I  will  say  for  them.     For  hours  they  held 
their  own  in  spite  of  Gourko's  immensely  greater  strength. 
At  length,  assailed  in  front  and  their  right  flank  at  the 
same  time  turned,  they  fell  back  fighting  as  they  retired. 
Gourko's   loss  was  about  60  men.     How  obstinately  the 
Turks  had  fought  was  proved  by  their  losses :  they  left 
400  dead  and  they  must  have  suffered  heavily  in  wounded. 
Their  stubborn  resistance  wrecked  the  projected  Russian 
combined  operation  which  was  to  have  come  off  on  the 
17th.     Gourko's  troops  were  so  exhausted  by  their  long 
fight  that  the  force  had  to  spend  the  night  10  miles  short 
of   Schipka.     At  daybreak  of  the   17th  we  were  on  the 
march  again ;  but  again,  when  about  half-way,  a  Turkish 
force  was  found  athwart  our  path,  and    although  it  was 
but  three  battalions  strong  the  fighting  lasted  for  several 
hours.     By  noon  Gourko  was  in  the  beautiful  village  of 
Kezanlik,  in  the  centre  of  the  gardens  where  grow  the 
roses  from  which  the  inhabitants  distil  the  finest  attar  of 
roses  in  the  world.     So  fatigued  were  the  troops  that  the 
force  did  not  reach  the  village  of  Schipka  until  sunset, 
when  it  was  too  late  to  attack  the  pass.     The  night  was  a 
regular  orgie  of  plunder  by  the  Cossacks  and  Bulgarians. 
Most  of  the  Turks  had  already  fled  hurriedly  from  Kezan- 
lik and  Schipka,  leaving  the  bulk  of  their  belongings  in 


50  Czar  and  Sultan 

their  houses.  Gourko  had  no  provost-marshal  and  Prince 
Tzeretleff  undertook  the  duty.  The  way  he  used  his 
Cossack  whip  on  the  marauders  was  a  caution.  I  saw  him 
cut  half-open  with  it  the  face  of  a  Greek  interpreter  to  one 
of  the  brigade  commanders,  a  person  who  passed  for  a 
gentleman  but  whom  the  Prince  found  dividing  spoil  with 
Cossacks  in  a  Turkish  house. 

In  the  course  of  the  night  Bulgarian  spies  who  had 
crossed  the  Balkans  by  obscure  footpaths  brought  in  the 
tidings  that  Russian  columns  from  Gabrova  had  attacked 
the  Turkish  positions  in  the  pass  on  the  previous  day,  and 
had  been  beaten  back  with  heavy  loss.  MacGahan  told 
me  later  that  the  business  had  been  a  muddle,  for  which 
Prince  Mirsky,  commanding  the  9th  division  (8th  Corps), 
was  chiefly  responsible.  There  was  only  a  single  regiment 
available  —  about  2,400  men  with  six  guns.  This  force 
was  split  up  into  four  distinct  columns  and  the  only  won- 
der was,  MacGahan  said,  that  the  Turks,  who  were  en- 
trenched on  the  summit  of  the  Schipka  in  a  strength  of 
about  5,000  men  with  twelve  guns,  had  not  annihilated  the 
weak  Russian  columns  in  detail.  Gourko  had  not  kept 
tryst,  having  lost  a  day  as  I  have  told  you.  MacGahan's 
opinion  was  that  he  should  now  wait  until  he  had  commu- 
nicated with  the  Russians  northward  of  the  pass  and 
arranged  with  them  a  combined  operation ;  but,  added 
he,  Gourko  was  furious  with  anger  and  chagrin  and  was 
about  to  attack  immediately  single-handed. 

He  did  so ;  but,  with  that  contempt  for  the  Turks  which 
in  the  early  days  of  the  campaign  was  general  in  the  Rus- 
sian army,  he  attacked  in  very  inadequate  force.  He 
might  have  struck  with  5,000  men ;  instead  of  which  he 


Gourkos  Raid  across  the  Balkans  51 

climbed  the  steep  woodpaths  and  deployed  against  the 
Turkish  positions  with  but  two  battalions  of  riflemen. 
The  firing  had  barely  begun  when  the  Turks  sent  out 
a  flag  of  truce.  The  "cease  fire"  was  sounded  on  both 
sides ;  a  number  of  Turkish  officers  followed  the  white 
flag  and  a  party  of  Russian  officers  went  forward  to  meet 
it.  Prince  Tzeretleff  was  of  this  party,  and  as  I  had  been 
with  him  all  the  morning  I  now  accompanied  him.  A 
short  conversation  in  French  was  held  between  some  of 
the  Turkish  and  Russian  officers,  and  the  former  spoke 
of  capitulation.  Suddenly  the  Turkish  officers  turned  and 
hurried  back  to  their  lines;  Turkish  bugles  sounded  the 
"open  fire"  and  a  number  of  bullets  came  whistling  by 
and  over  us.  The  Russian  riflemen,  excited  by  this  treach- 
ery, charged  the  Turkish  trenches  with  a  rush  and  carried 
parts  of  the  outer  lines  ;  but  they  were  too  weak  to  pene- 
trate to  the  main  works  on  St.  Nicholas  Hill  and  retired 
down  the  mountain  into  the  village  of  Schipka. 

Next  day  was  full  of  sensation.  The  Russians  were  to 
attack  the  Turkish  positions  both  from  north  and  from 
south.  But  the  Turks  had  determined  to  decamp  ;  and  to 
gain  time  for  their  withdrawal  they  practised  a  neat  decep- 
tion. The  Pasha  sent  to  Gourko  a  letter  tendering  his 
surrender.  It  was  agreed  that  the  capitulation  should 
take  place  at  noon.  Meanwhile  Gourko  sent  some 
stretcher-bearers  up  to  the  scene  of  the  previous  day's 
fighting,  to  bring  in  the  wounded.  Prince  Tzeretleff  took 
charge  of  these  bearers  and  I  went  with  him.  To  our 
intense  surprise,  as  we  reached  the  crest  we  found  the 
Turkish  position  entirely  abandoned.  We  advanced  cau- 
tiously, fearing  foul  play.     There  were  no  wounded  men 


52  Czar  and  Sultan 

to  be  carried  down.  On  the  hill-slope  we  found  many 
Russian  corpses  headless  and  mutilated  in  a  ghastly  and 
abominable  manner.  Inside  the  main  works,  in  front  of 
where  the  Pasha's  abandoned  tent  still  stood,  was  a  pile 
of  Russian  heads :  the  mouths  of  some  open  and  black 
with  the  tongues  cut  out ;  other  mouths  filled  in  an  atro- 
cious manner.  It  was  a  ghastly  sight.  To  this  day  I 
sometimes  dream  of  it  and  awake  shuddering. 

Tzeretleff  sent  me  back  into  Schipka,  bidding  me  hurry, 
to  tell  the  general  of  the  disappearance  of  the  Turks  and 
of  what  sort  of  legacy  they  had  left  behind  them.  He 
scribbled  a  pencil-note  on  a  leaf  from  his  pocket-book, 
which  I  handed  to  the  aide-de-camp  on  duty  at  the  door 
of  Gourko's  headquarters.  Presently  I  was  called  in  and 
was  examined  by  the  general  in  a  series  of  short  abrupt 
questions,  the  answers  to  which  he  invariably  cut  short 
before  they  were  finished.  Suspecting  treachery  he  had 
sent  forward  a  reconnoitring  party,  which  on  its  way  up 
I  had  passed  as  I  hurried  down ;  and  there  now  stood  on 
the  village  street  a  couple  of  battalions  which  it  had  been 
intended  to  send  in  support  of  the  reconnoitring  party. 
Gourko  called  for  his  horse ;  his  staff  gathered  around ; 
and  mounted  on  MacGahan's  horse  I  took  the  liberty  of 
joining  the  general's  following.  Gourko  ordered  the  two 
battalions  forward  and  himself  started  at  a  hard  gallop, 
which  very  soon  was  checked  by  the  steepness  of  the 
ascent.  As  we  approached  the  position  there  was  quite 
an  outburst  of  surprise.  The  reconnoitring  party  had 
gone  away  to  the  left,  presumably  on  the  Turkish  trail. 
But  the  camp,  strangely,  was  full  of  men !  Were  the 
Turks  still  there?     "No,"  shouted  a  staff  officer;  "look 


Gourkds  Raid  across  the  Balkans  53 

at  the  Russian  flag !  "  And  sure  enough  there  was  the 
double  eagle  floating  from  the  staff  on  which  yesterday 
we  had  seen  the  Crescent-banner  flying. 

Young  Skobeleff  met  Gourko  at  the  exterior  trench. 
Yes,  it  was  that  wonderful  man  who  had  "nicked  in" 
adroitly  and  made  himself  master  of  the  Schipka  Pass  !  — 
in  the  attempt  to  carry  which  every  other  officer  had  failed 
—  Mirski,  Darozhinsky,  the  young  Grand  Duke  Nicholas, 
Gourko  himself.  Gourko  looked  very  black  and  was 
grumpy  in  the  extreme,  while  Skobeleff  in  the  blandest 
manner  told  him  of  his  good  fortune.  He  had  not  a  great 
deal  to  narrate  for  he  had  not  fired  a  shot.  He  had 
quitted  Gabrova  in  the  early  morning  with  two  battalions 
of  infantry,  four  guns,  and  some  Cossacks;  climbed  the 
pass  by  the  road,  advanced  successively  from  one  line  of 
trenches  to  another,  finding  each  and  all  empty ;  and 
finally  had  attained  to  the  heart  of  the  Turkish  position  on 
the  St.  Nicholas  Hill  without  encountering  any  defenders. 
He  had  arrived  about  an  hour  after  I  had  been  sent  down 
into  Schipka  by  Tzeretleff,  and  when  Gourko  came  up  his 
command  were  still  shuddering  and  crossing  themselves 
over  the  mutilated  remains  of  their  comrades. 

MacGahan  had  accumulated  a  great  budget  of  corre- 
spondence. I  should  have  told  you  before  that  in  the 
Russian  army  there  was  no  postal  service  and  that  what 
postal  service  there  had  been  in  Bulgaria  before  the  war 
had  been  broken  up  before  the  Russians  crossed  the 
Danube.  The  correspondents  had  thus  either  to  be  their 
own  couriers  back  to  the  post-office  at  Bucharest,  the 
nearest  place  where  there  was  any  certainty  of  quick  and 
sure  despatch,  or  in  the  alternative  to  have  with  them,  or 


54 


Czar  and  Snlian 


to  find  on  the  spot,  persons  who  would  serve  as  couriers. 
If  they  acted  as  their  own  couriers  they  had  to  leave  the 
front  and  might  miss  important  events.  If,  again,  they 
hired  couriers,  many  despatches  went  astray.  The  mes- 
senger having  been  paid  in  advance,  might  merely  start 
and  halt  for  copious  raki  in  the  next  village  —  he  might 
be  honest  but  stupid ;  while  it  was  possible,  especially  in 
the  Balkans,  that  a  messenger  could  not  be  found  on 
any  terms.  Colonel  Burnaby  of  The  Times  accompanied 
Gourko's  raid,  which  lasted  more  than  a  month.  During 
all  that  time  he  never  found  an  opportunity  for  forwarding 
a  single  letter,  and  he  brought  back  to  Bucharest  a  pile  of 
correspondence  which  by  that  time  was  out  of  date  and  of 
which  I  believe  he  had  finally  to  make  a  book.  I  was  by 
way  of  being  MacGahan's  secretary ;  but  I  thought  it  no 
discredit  to  act  as  courier  for  him,  or  when  not  required 
by  him  for  any  other  gentleman  of  the  English  or  Ameri- 
can Press.  I  was  in  no  want :  I  had  my  father's  house 
to  go  to ;  but  in  the  arrest  of  all  commerce  the  firm  of 
course  was  earning  nothing.  I  was  quite  willing  to  make 
an  honest  living  in  the  kind  of  service  of  which  I  have 
mentioned  ;  indeed,  for  the  sake  of  the  adventurous  life  and 
the  opportunities  for  seeing  fighting  and  the  inner  as  well 
as  the  outer  life  of  warfare  which  my  companionship  with 
correspondents  gave  me,  I  should  have  been  quite  content 
to  give  my  services  without  fee  or  reward.  MacGahan 
desired  that  I  should  leave  him  at  Schipka  and  hurry  to 
Bucharest  with  his  budget  of  correspondence.  He  intended 
remaining  with  Gourko,  who,  he  had  the  belief,  was  deter- 
mined to  sweep  on  through  the  Tundja  and  Maritza 
valleys  to  the  capture  of  Adrianople.     The  main  Russian 


Gourkds  Raid  across  the  B alkalis  55 


army  would  follow  fast  on  Gourko's  track  now  that  the 
Balkans  were  conquered ;  and  MacGahan  did  not  in  that 
event  anticipate  any  difficulty  in  sending  his  correspond- 
ence back  to  the  base  from  wherever  he  might  be.  I  was 
very  anxious  to  remain  with  him,  because  he  was  my  first 
and  best  friend  and  also  because  of  his  lame  condition 
which  necessarily  hampered  him  not  a  little  ;  but  it  was 
my  duty  to  obey  him.  General  Skobeleff  had  told  me 
that  he  was  returning  to  Gabrova  on  the  following  day  and 
that  I  might  go  with  him.  The  same  evening  he  came 
down  into  Schipka  to  visit  MacGahan,  and  bidding  adieu 
for  the  time  to  my  kind  master  and  friend  I  returned  with 
the  general  to  the  camp  on  the  top  of  the  pass. 

I  may  briefly  summarise  Gourko's  subsequent  adven- 
tures. He  sent  a  detachment  by  way  of  Eski  Zagha  to 
strike  the  Yamboli  railway  about  Karabunar,  which  after 
some  resistance  destroyed  several  miles  of  line,  and  then 
returned  to  Eski  Zagha  after  having  been  within  70  miles 
of  Adrianople.  Another  detachment  rode  to  a  station 
on  the  main  Philippopolis  railway,  where  it  destroyed  a 
stretch  of  line,  cut  the  telegraph,  and  did  other  damage. 
Meanwhile,  although  Gourko  did  not  know  it,  Suleiman 
Pasha's  army,  having  been  removed  from  Montenegro, 
was  now  being  sent  up  from  the  sea-coast  by  train  and 
was  marching  on  Eski  Zagha  and  Yeni  Zagha.  At  both 
places  Gourko  fought  desperate  battles  with  inadequate 
forces  against  the  Turkish  army  by  this  time  numbering 
over  40,000  men,  and  finally  was  forced  to  retreat.  No 
reinforcements  could  be  sent  to  him,  and  he  had  to  with- 
draw the  mass  of  his  troops  through  the  Hainkioj  Pass 
which    he    had  always  kept  open,  the  Bulgarian   Legion 


56  Czar  and  Sultan 

taking  position  to  hold  the  Schipka  Pass.  His  total  losses 
had  amounted  to  nearly  1,000  men.  He  had  deservedly 
earned  great  distinction,  and  was  the  only  Russian  com- 
mander in  the  war  who  showed  skill  in  handling  cavalry. 
Up  on  the  summit  of  the  Schipka  early  in  the  morning 
of  the  20th  a  solemn  funeral  service  was  performed  over 
the  great  trench  in  which  were  buried  the  mutilated  Rus- 
sian dead  ;  and  then  Skobeleff' s  little  force,  which  I 
accompanied,  marched  back  to  Gabrova.  Buying  a  pony 
there,  —  the  little  horse  cost  me  about  an  English  pound 
and  carried  me  well  on  many  a  long  journey, —  I  rode 
fast  to  Sistova,  crossed  the  Danube,  and  took  train  at 
Giurgevo  for  Bucharest.  Here  I  found  Villiers  who  had 
come  back  to  post  his  sketches,  which  went  to  England 
by  the  same  mail  as  carried  MacGahan's  budget. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  SECOND  BATTLE  OF  PLEVNA 

VILLIERS  had  been  at  the  Imperial  headquarters  in 
Bjela,  where  General  Ignatieff  had  told  him  that 
Osman  Pasha  was  at  Plevna  with  a  great  Turkish  army ; 
that  he  had  already  defeated  a  Russian  force  sent  against 
him  ;  and  that  he  was  about  to  be  attacked  again  towards 
the  end  of  July  by  a  much  stronger  force  under  the  com- 
mand of  General  Krudener.  Ignatieff  had  given  Villiers 
a  letter  of  introduction  to  Prince  Schahofskoy  who  was 
to  co-operate  with  Krudener,  and  he  was  just  starting  on 
his  journey  in  the  direction  of  Plevna.  Villiers  was  very 
glad  to  have  me  with  him  because  I  knew  the  country  and 
could  interpret  for  him  ;  and  by  the  morning  of  the  27th 
we  were  once  more  on  the  Bulgarian  side  of  the  Danube, 
jogging  through  the  grassy  country  on  our  way  to  Pora- 
dim,  where  we  understood  were  Prince  Schahofskoy's 
headquarters. 

We  found  him  there  sure  enough,  but  he  was  in  a  most 
boorish  humour.  He  owned  that  Ignatieff's  letter  of 
introduction  compelled  him  to  receive  the  English  artist ; 
otherwise,  he  frankly  said,  he  would  have  sent  him  away 
since  he  hated  both  correspondents  and  artists.  With 
that  he  turned  to  his  dinner  which  he  ate  in  a  ditch.  We 
looked  wistfully  on  for  we  were  dying  of  hunger,  but  he 

57 


^8  Czar  and  Sultan 


offered  us  neither  bite  nor  sup.  We  had  become  ravenous 
and  had  designs  on  Schahofskoy's  leavings,  when  VilHers 
was  accosted  by  General  Count  Protassoff-Bakmetieff,  a 
grand  old  soldier  who  had  been  at  the  Salisbury  Plain 
autumn  manoeuvres  in  1872,  when  he  and  Villiers  had  met. 
The  count  took  us  to  his  tent  and  fed  us  with  the  best  he 
had,  talking  about  England  as  we  ate.  The  battle  was 
expected  for  the  morrow.  Count  Protassoff  told  us  that 
the  whole  Russian  force  allotted  for  the  attack  on  Plevna 
amounted  to  about  30,000  infantry,  with  three  brigades  of 
cavalry  and  160  guns.  Kriidener  would  have  a  whole 
division  in  front,  with  a  brigade  in  reserve.  His  field  of 
action  was  on  the  right  of  the  half-circle  enclosing  the 
Turkish  positions.  Schahofskoy's  intended  position  was 
on  the  left,  with  two  brigades  in  his  fighting  line  and  a 
third  in  reserve.  Osman  had  entrenched  himself  strongly 
and  was  believed  to  be  in  greater  strength  than  were  the 
Russians.  Kriidener,  it  was  said,  did  not  at  all  fancy  the 
task  laid  upon  him  and  had  even  remonstrated  against 
the  risk  of  failure  which  he  apprehended;  but  he  had 
received  a  peremptory  and  even  angry  order  from  the 
Commander-in-Chief  to  obey  his  instructions  without  delay 
and  not  bother  the  headquarters  with  any  more  querulous 
croaking.  Kriidener  was  now  said  to  be  furious :  he  had 
the  full  belief  that  he  would  be  beaten, — a  belief  which 
the  event  justified,  —  but  he  was  resolved  to  put  in  his  last 
man ;  and  as  regarded  himself,  he  would  rather  prefer 
that  he  did  not  come  out  of  the  business  alive.  Indeed 
throughout  the  camp  there  was  little  of  that  excitement  of 
anticipation  which  I  had  observed  in  the  evening  before 
the  crossing  of  the  Danube.     The  Russian  officer,  subject 


X' 


.^v 

Sfi 

^^^^K 

Ik    ' 

GENERAL    IGNATIEFF. 


The  Second  Battle  of  Plevna  59 

of  a  despot  though  he  is,  has  a  habit  of  speaking  his  mind; 
and  before  this  battle  the  Grand  Duke  Nicholas'  ears 
would  have  tingled  had  he  heard  the  comments  made 
upon  him. 

On  the  afternoon  of  the  29th  there  was  a  great  council 
of  war  in  Schahofskoy's  Camp.  Kriidener  drove  over 
from  his  own  quarters  and  was  greeted  rather  sourly  by 
his  brother  corps-commander.  The  council  was  held  in 
the  farm-yard  of  a  Bulgarian  house.  The  generals  and 
leading  staff  officers  gathered  into  the  wide  clay-fioored 
porch  under  the  spreading  roof,  and  there,  standing  in  a 
group,  pored  over  maps  and  no  doubt  discussed  the  plan 
of  operations.  The  other  officers  stood  about  the  farm- 
yard or  sat  on  the  shafts  of  waggons,  waiting  for  the 
detailed  instructions  to  them  which  would  follow  on  the 
settlement  of  the  general  dispositions.  It  was  a  fine  op- 
portunity for  studying  the  divers  types  of  Russian  officers. 
I  am  not  good  at  description,  as  you  young  fellows  have 
no  doubt  found  out  by  this  time :  but  Villiers  had  a  rare 
faculty  that  way  as  well  with  his  pen  as  with  his  pencil ; 
indeed  for  the  matter  of  that  I  used  to  think  that  he  wrote 
better  than  he  drew.  I  will  read  you  a  cutting  from  a 
letter  of  his  to  the  Graphic,  in  which  he  touched  off  to 
the  life  the  types  of  warriors  forming  the  various  groups. 
"  Here  one  sees  the  grey-bearded,  hard-faced  old  major, 
who  without  interest  has  fought  his  sturdy  way  up  through 
the  grades  with  long  delays,  much  hard  service,  and  many 
wounds.  He  was  an  ensign  in  the  Crimea,  and  was  after- 
wards forgotten  for  heaven  knows  how  many  years  in 
some  corner  of  the  Caucasus.  To-day  he  is  only  a  major, 
but    he   has  half-a-dozen  decorations,  and  please  God  he 


6o  Czar  and  Sultan 


will  gain  another  to-morrow  if  he  has  the  luck  to  stand  up. 
He  is  as  hard  as  nails  and  would  probably  prefer  to  live  on 
biscuits  and  commissary  beef  rather  than  on  champagne 
and  French  cookery.     There  is  little  in  common  between 
him  and  this  tall,  stately,  grizzled  general,  an  aide-de-camp 
of   the  Emperor :  a  man  of  the  Court  yet  who  has  never 
forsworn  the  camp :  a  man  who  will  discuss  with  you  the 
relative  merits  of  Patti  and  of  Lucca  ;  who  has  yachted 
in  the  Solent  and  stalked  red-deer  in  the  Highlands ;  who 
wears  his  decorations,  too,  —  some  of  them  earned  in  the 
forefront    of   the   battle,  others    honorary    distinctions    as 
marks  of  Imperial  favour.     He  can  gallop,  can  this  young 
Hussar   in    the   blue    and    gold;    he   can  cut   the    sword 
exercise    and    sing    French   chansons ;    he  can  pick  up  a 
bottle    of    champagne    between    his   teeth  and  holding  it 
there  let  the  contents  run  down  his  throat ;  he  would  give 
his  last  cigarette  either  to  a  comrade  or  to  a  stranger  like 
myself;  he  has  the  portraits  of  his  mother  and  his, fiancee 
in  his  bosom,  and  in  his  secret  heart  he  has  vowed  to  win 
the  Cross  of  St.  George  to-morrow.     I  don't  know  that  I 
quite   like   Lieutenant  Brutokoff  even  yet.     I  know  that 
the  first  time  I  met  him  I  disliked  him  down  to  the  ground. 
His   manners  —  well,  he  had  none  to  speak  of;  and  his 
voice    was    a    growl,    with    a    hoarseness  in  it  that  came 
straight  from  schnapps.     He  did  not  look  as  if  he  washed 
frequently,  and  he  was  the  sort  of  man  who  might  give 
some    colour   to   the   myth  that  the  Russian  has  not  yet 
quite  broken  himself  of  the  habit  of  breakfasting  off  tallow 
candles  and  train  oil.     But  he  turned  out  a  good  sort  of  a 
fellow  on  further  acquaintance,  and  I  never  knew  him  with- 
out a  tot  in  his  flask  and  a  hearty  readiness  to  share  it." 


The  Second  Battle  of  Plevna  6i 

This  same  night  young  Skobeleff  came  galloping  into 
the  camp  from  Tirnova,  with  an  order  from  the  Grand 
Duke  that  Prince  Schahofskoy  should  hand  over  to  him 
the  temporary  command  of  the  Brigade  of  Caucasian 
Cossacks  comprised  in  the  latter's  command.  The  Prince, 
Skobeleff  told  us,  was  excessively  angry,  and  told  him  he 
could  go  to  the  devil  and  take  the  brigade  with  him.  It 
seemed  he  had  threatened  to  put  Skobeleff  under  arrest 
for  what  he  called  "impertinence,"  but  in  the  end  had 
thought  better  of  it.  Before  sundown  on  the  following 
day  he  had  to  own  his  obligation  to  Skobeleff  for  preserv- 
ing him  and  his  whole  force  from  being  destroyed. 

The  night  between  the  29th  and  30th  was  spent  with 
tents  struck  and  horses  saddled  in  readiness  for  the  order 
to  advance.  It  had  rained  all  night  and  the  morning  was 
very  dismal.  Villiers  had  caught  a  chill  and  in  common 
with  everybody  else  we  were  wet  through.  In  the  drizzling 
dawn  good  General  Protassoff  sent  us  some  coffee  and 
eggs ;  he  had  no  bread,  he  sent  word,  but  the  coffee  and 
eggs  were  a  great  deal  better  than  nothing.  He  himself 
came  to  us  later,  looking  very  grave.  He  told  us  that  in- 
formation from  the  reconnoitring  parties  had  come  in  to 
the  effect  that  the  Turks  in  the  Plevna  position  were  in 
greater  force  than  had  been  believed  —  that  their  strength 
was  now  estimated  at  40,000  as  against  the  Russian 
30,000;  and  that  the  prospects  were  not  favourable  for 
an  inferior  force  assailing  a  superior  force  in  strong  and 
prepared  defensive  positions.  The  advance  began  at  6 
a.m.,  the  cavalry  leading.  The  Russian  troops  were  in 
good  heart.  As  the  infantrymen  went  swinging  past  the 
general  without  knapsacks  and  carrying  only  greatcoats 


62  Czar  and  Sultan 

and  haversacks,  they  cheered  vigorously  and  seemed  ready 
for  anything.  We  rode  alongside  the  leading  regiment, 
and  after  a  march  of  about  two  hours  we  were  on  the 
upland  in  front  of  Pelischat  whence  the  Plevna  region  lay 
before  us.  We  were  near  the  apex  of  a  great  horseshoe 
closed  in  at  the  heel  by  a  wooded  valley  running  north 
and  south  in  the  centre  of  which,  we  were  told,  lay  the 
town  of  Plevna ;  and  as  the  clouds  broke  and  the  sky 
cleared  we  could  discern  above  the  encircling  trees  its 
white  minarets  on  which  the  sunlight  was  glinting.  On 
the  long  ridge  forming  the  northern  section  of  the  horse- 
shoe we  could  discern  the  tents  of  the  Turkish  camps,  and 
towards  the  curve  of  it  nearest  us  there  lay  the  Gravitza 
redoubt,  of  which  later  the  world  was  to  hear  much.  Now 
it  did  not  seem  very  formidable  —  merely  a  rough  parallel- 
ogram the  long  sides  of  which  lay  north  and  south ;  all  of 
defence  that  was  visible  consisting  of  a  rough  bank  of 
earth  with  a  ditch  at  its  outer  foot,  a  few  guns  here  and 
there  behind  the  earth-bank  and  a  good  many  Turks 
inside  the  work.  That  northern  ridge,  we  were  told,  was 
the  section  of  the  attack  belonging  to  Kriidener.  To  our 
left  front  as  we  looked  towards  Plevna,  there  stretched  a 
long  ridge  forming  the  southern  edge  of  the  great  central 
horseshoe.  It  was  spoken  of  as  the  ridge  of  Radischevo, 
the  name  taken  from  that  of  a  village  lying  in  the  hollow 
behind  it ;  and  this  ridge  of  Radischevo,  we  were  told,  was 
the  ground  allotted  to  Schahofskoy.  When  he  should 
have  moved  forward  and  occupied  it,  the  top  of  the  horse- 
shoe from  which  we  now  looked  down  would  be  denuded 
of  troops,  with  the  result  that  the  attacks  of  Kriidener  and 
Schahofskoy  would  have  no  link  between  them  and  would 


The  Second  Battle  of  Plevna  63 


in  effect  be  independent  of  each  other.  Protassoff  spoke 
of  this  as  a  great  evil,  rendered  necessary,  however,  by  the 
wide  circumference  of  the  Turkish  positions  and  the  com- 
parative weakness  of  the  Russian  forces. 

The  area  enclosed  within  the  ridges  bounding  the  horse- 
shoe was  not  a  fiat  space.     Along  its  centre  from  east  to 
west  rose  a  considerable  elevation  reaching  back  all  the 
way  to   Plevna   and    rising   as   it   approached   the   town. 
Disposed  along  the  summit  of  this  elevation  which  sloped 
downwards  both  to  north  and  south,  were  Turkish  earth- 
work   redoubts ;    looking   through    his   binocular   Villiers 
noted  three  of  these,  which  he  said  were  full  of  men  and 
were  armed  with  guns.     It  was  altogether  a  strange  scene. 
The  Turks  out  yonder  in  front  of  us  seemed  perfectly  quies- 
cent, save  for  working  parties  here  and  there  in  the  trenches 
and  about  the    parapets.      Schahofskoy's  people  for  the 
time  played  the  part  of  curious  and  inoffensive  spectators. 
Some  of  our  gay  young  staff  officers  would  have  it  that 
slow  old   Kriidener   had   not   yet   got   out   of   bed.     But 
Kriidener  was  wide  awake  and  close  at  hand.     It  was  the 
Turks  who  in  effect  told  us  so,  for  from  where  we  were  he 
was  not  discernible.     At  about  half-past  eight  the  guns  of 
the  Gravitza  redoubt  opened  fire.     We  were  not  their  mark 
—  we  were  too  far  away.     Smoke  rose  to  the  eastward  of 
the  redoubt  and  the  cannon-thunder  came  to  us  on  the 
wind.     Krijdener's  artillery  were  in  action,  playing  all  it 
knew  on  the  Gravitza  redoubt. 

Villiers  and  I  had  remained  behind  to  watch  the  begin- 
ning of  this  artillery  duel  while  Schahofskoy's  force  was 
marching  leftward  into  the  deep  valley  behind  the  Radi- 
schevo  ridge ;  and  we  now  rode  sharply  to  overtake  our 


64  Czar  and  Sultan 

friends.  All  Schahofskoy's  force  was  comfortably  en- 
sconced in  this  valley  waiting  for  events.  Further  west- 
ward, beyond  the  termination  of  the  Radischevo  ridge 
and  upon  the  Loftcha  road,  Skobeleff,  we  were  told,  was 
covering  Schahofskoy's  left.  In  the  village  of  Radischevo 
it  seemed  that  there  were  still  some  Turks.  They  were  but 
a  handful  of  marauding  Bashi-Bazouks,  against  whom  a 
company  was  sent.  The  Turks  stood  their  ground  and 
were  promptly  bayoneted  to  the  great  joy  of  the  villagers 
who  had  suffered  much  at  their  hands.  After  a  while, 
under  the  direction  of  Colonel  Bischofskoy,  the  general's 
chief  of  staff,  twenty-eight  guns  were  brought  up  on  to 
the  crest  of  the  Radischevo  ridge  and  came  into  action. 
The  infantry  moved  up  closer  towards  the  foot  of  the 
reverse  slope  and  into  the  glades  about  the  village,  about 
which  were  faUing  many  Turkish  shells  which  had  flown 
over  the  ridge  crowned  by  the  Russian  artillery.  It  was 
strange  to  witness  the  peasant  villagers  standing  in  scared 
groups  in  front  of  their  cottages,  shuddering  as  the  shells 
crashed  into  the  place,  while  the  children  were  playing 
about  the  dust-heaps  without  any  sense  of  their  danger. 
Villiers  and  I,  leaving  our  horses  in  the  village,  dodged  up 
to  where  the  batteries  were  in  action  and  lay  down  be- 
tween two  guns  to  watch  the  scene.  From  this  point  of 
vantage  we  looked  right  down  into  the  Turkish  positions. 
Several  guns  in  the  earthwork  about  a  hamlet  or  farm- 
house which  seemed  to  us  to  be  the  most  advanced  of  the 
Turkish  works  on  the  central  elevation,  were  vigorously 
replying  to  the  Russian  cannonade.  The  work  stood  on 
a  knoll  with  a  smooth  slope  falling  away  from  it  in  three 
directions,  north,  east,  and  south.     On  its  right  were  more 


The  Second  Battle  of  Plevna  65 

redoubts  all  the  way  to  the  edge  of  the  broad  valley  in 
which  the  roofs  and  spires  of  Plevna  sparkled  in  the  sun- 
shine from  out  a  circle  of  verdure.  The  place  had  an  aspect 
of  serenity  strangely  contrasting  with  the  turmoil  of  the 
cannon-fire  raging  in  front  of  it.  It  seemed  so  near  that 
a  short  ride  might  bring  us  there  to  the  breakfast  we 
needed  so  badly ;  but  thousands  of  men  were  to  die  and 
many  months  were  to  elapse  before  the  place  was  acces- 
sible to  others  than  Turks.  As  we  lay  and  watched,  men 
were  falling  fast  round  us  by  their  guns  ;  for  the  elevated 
position  was  greatly  exposed  and  the  Turkish  practice  was 
most  uncomfortably  true. 

Now  and  then  a  staff  officer  would  come  along  and  sit 
down  for  a  little  talk.  I  remember  especially  a  chat  with 
Count  Keller,  a  German  officer  in  the  Russian  service 
with  whom  Villiers  had  made  acquaintance  in  Servia. 
Count  Keller  was  not  sanguine.  Kriidener  was  still  ham- 
mering away  at  the  Gravitza  redoubt  with  his  cannon. 
Five  hours  Keller  thought  was  rather  too  long  for  an 
artillery  preparation.  It  was  time  that  the  old  fellow  was 
putting  in  his  infantry,  and  ascertaining  at  the  point  of 
the  bayonet  whether  that  infernal  earthwork  was  impreg- 
nable or  not.  Caution  was  all  very  well ;  but  no  battle 
was  ever  won  by  sheer  artillery  fire.  What  he,  Keller, 
was  afraid  of  was  that  Schahofskoy,  who  was  already  in 
a  white-heat  of  impatience,  should  act  rashly  and  attack 
with  his  infantry  in  advance  of  co-operation  from  the  side 
of  Kriidener.  In  that  case  there  would  be  the  mischief 
to  pay ;  the  whole  force  was  too  small  for  the  work  put 
upon  it,  and  how  much  more  so  would  be  one-half  of  that 
force  .■*     "  I  fear  it  will  be  a  scJdecJites  Tag,  gentlemen  !  " 


66  Czar  and  Sultan 


said  the  count,  as  he  rose  and  descended   the  slope  be- 
hind us. 

Keller  was  but  too  right  in  his  af)prehension  as  to 
Schahofskoy's  impatience.  Presently  that  chief  came  up 
the  slope  from  the  village,  to  see  for  himself  how  things 
were  going.  As  he  reached  the  sky-line  the  Turks  clearly 
marked  the  mounted  group,  and  a  regular  hurricane  of 
shell-fire  was  directed  upon  it.  Three  officers  were  killed 
on  the  spot.  Schahofskoy  promptly  rolled  out  of  the 
saddle,  letting  his  horse  take  its  chance,  and  crept  for- 
ward into  the  little  depression  in  which  we  were  squatting. 
His  eyes  were  blazing  and  his  face  was  flushed,  as  he 
swore  most  vigorously  in  the  strong  colloquial  Russian 
of  the  common  soldier.  He  looked  at  his  watch.  It  was 
a  few  minutes  past  two.  No  sign  of  Kriidener.  Schahof- 
skoy turned  his  head  with  an  oath  and  shouted  to  Colonel 
Bischofskoy,  his  chief  of  staff,  who  was  lying  down  behind 
him  :  "  Bring  up  the  125th  and  126th  Regiments  at  once! 
Quick ! "  These  were  the  two  regiments  belonging  to 
the  brigade  of  his  own  army  corps  which  he  had  brought 
with  him  from  Tirnova ;  the  rest  of  his  command,  the 
30th  division  belonging  to  the  4th  Army  Corps,  had 
crossed  the  Danube  only  a  few  days  previously  and  had 
never  been  in  action.  General  Tchekoff,  the  gallant  chief 
of  the  brigade,  came  up  the  slope  at  a  canter  and  told 
the  prince  that  his  two  regiments  had  been  chafing  at 
the  forced  inaction  and  were  already  on  the  advance. 
We  heard  them  cheering  as  they  came  sweeping  up  the 
slope  with  a  swift  swinging  step,  marching  in  company 
columns  the  rifle  companies  leading.  Just  before  reach- 
ing  the    crest   the  battalions    deployed    into    line    at   the 


The  Second  Battle  of  Plevna  67 

double  and  crossed  it  in  this  formation,  breaking  to  pass 
through  the  intervals  between  the  guns,  quite  impartially- 
treading  over  Villiers  and  myself  —  the  general  had  risen 
and  was  standing  against  a  tree,  saluting  the  men  as  they 
streamed  past  him.  The  artillery  had  heralded  the  ad- 
vance of  the  infantry  by  an  added  rapidity  of  fire  ;  as 
the  latter  passed  the  guns  there  was  a  brief  cessation  ; 
and  then  the  gunners  fired  all  they  knew  as  soon  as  the 
infantry  had  passed  the  crest  and  were  descending  the 
further  slope,  and  while  they  were  crossing  the  interven- 
ing hollow  to  the  assault  of  the  Turkish  position.  The 
Turkish  shells  crashed  through  the  ranks  as  the  regiments 
pressed  forward,  and  men  were  already  down  in  num- 
bers ;  but  the  long  undulating  line  pushed  on  through  the 
undergrowth  descent  and  then  tramped  steadily  over  the 
stubble  fields  below.  No  skirmishing  line  was  thrown 
out  in  advance.  The  fighting  line  retained  the  formation 
for  a  time,  till  what  with  impatience  and  what  with  men 
falling  it  broke  into  a  ragged  spray  of  humanity  and 
surged  on  swiftly,  loosely,  and  with  no  close  cohesion. 
It  was  a  stern  rush  of  fighting  men  on  which  we  looked 
down  with  eyes  fixed  and  intent — a  helter-skelter  of  men 
impelled  by  a  burning  ardour  to  get  forward  and  to  come 
to  close  quarters  with  the  enemy  calmly  firing  on  them 
thera  from  behind  the  shelter  of  his  earthworks.  Conscious 
of  their  defective  weapon,  the  Russians  had  been  holding 
their  fire  while  as  yet  at  the  long  range  where  the  Turk- 
ish rifles  struck  them  down  in  sections  ;  but  now  all  along 
the  face  of  the  advancing  infantrymen  burst  forth  spurts 
and  splashes  of  musketry  fire.  The  jagged  line  sprang 
onward    up    the  maize-covered  slope,  gradually  assuming 


68  Czar  and  Sultan 


a  concave  formation.  The  Turkish  position  was  neared ; 
and  now  we  held  our  breath.  The  roll  of  rifle-fire  was 
incessant,  but  yet  mastered  by  the  fiercer  and  louder 
turmoil  of  the  artillery  above  us — for  we  had  gone  half- 
way down  the  slope  behind  the  fighting  men.  The 
ammunition  waggons  came  tearing  up  to  the  cannon  with 
fresh  fuel  for  their  fire.  The  guns  redoubled  the  energy 
of  their  cannonade.  The  crackle  of  the  musketry  fire 
rose  with  a  sharp  continuous  peal.  The  clamour  of  the 
cheering  of  the  fighting  men  came  back  to  us  on  the  wind 
making  the  blood  tingle  with  excitement.  A  village  was 
blazing  on  the  left.  The  supports  that  had  been  held 
back  lying  down  on  the  reverse  slope  were  now  hurried 
over  the  brow  and  down  the  hither  descent,  up  which 
wounded  men  were  beginning  to  trickle  past  us  limping 
and  groaning.  We  could  see  the  dead  and  the  more 
severely  wounded  lying  where  they  had  fallen  on  the 
stubbles  and  amidst  the  maize.  The  living  wave  of  fight- 
ing men  was  pouring  over  them  ever  on  and  on.  The 
gallant  gunners  above  us  who  had  been  standing  to  their 
work  with  a  will  on  the  shell-swept  ridge,  now  at  the 
word  of  command  ceased  firing  all  at  once,  lest  they 
should  hurt  their  own  people  now  close  to  the  Turkish 
trenches.  The  Turkish  cannon-fire  began  to  hesitate  in 
that  earthwork  over  against  us  there.  More  supports 
streamed  down  with  a  louder  cheer  into  the  Russian  fight- 
ing line.  Suddenly  the  disconnected  men  were  drawing 
together.  We  could  discern  the  officers  signalling  for  the 
concentration  by  the  waving  of  their  swords.  The  dis- 
tance was  about  lOO  yards.  There  was  a  wild  rush 
headed    by    the    colonel    of  one    of  the    regiments.     The 


The  Second  Battle  of  Pleviia  69 


Turks  in  the  shelter-trench  held  their  ground,  firing 
steadily  and  with  terrible  effect  into  the  advancing  as- 
sailants. The  colonel's  horse  went  down,  but  the  colonel 
was  on  his  feet  in  a  second  and  waving  his  sword  led  his 
men  forward  on  foot.  But  only  for  a  few  paces :  he  stag- 
gered and  fell  —  he  was  a  dead  man. 

From  where  we  sat  we  could  hear  the  tempest-gust  of 
wrath,  half  howl  half  yell,  with  which  his  men,  bayonets 
at  the  charge,  rushed  to  avenge  their  gallant  dead  chief. 
They  were  over  the  shelter-trench  and  over  the  parapet 
and  down  in  among  the  Turks  like  an  avalanche.  Not 
many  of  the  Turks  in  that  redoubt  got  the  chance  to  run 
away  from  the  gleaming  bayonets  wielded  by  muscular 
Russian  arms.  The  first  redoubt  was  taken ;  only  the 
Turks  had  got  away  ten  guns,  leaving  but  two  in  the 
Russian  hands.  But  the  Russian  soldiers  were  not  con- 
tent with  the  capture  of  one  Turkish  redoubt.  There 
was  another  near  the  one  taken,  nearer  to  Plevna  and 
like  the  first  also  on  the  summit  of  the  central  elevation 
of  which  you  will  remember  I  have  already  spoken. 
Schahofskoy's  soldiers,  full  of  pride  in  their  first  success, 
went  at  this.  The  Russians  are  poor  skirmishers  —  at 
least  they  were  so  in  1877;  for  aught  I  know  they  may 
have  improved  greatly  since  then.  They  used  not  to 
understand  taking  cover  and  suffered  accordingly.  Napo- 
leon was  wont  to  say  of  the  Russian  soldier  that  it  was  not 
enough  to  kill  him ;  after  having  done  so  you  had  to  go 
up  and  knock  down  the  corpse.  The  men  we  were  now 
watching  went  on  in  close  order  and  deep  formation 
against  the  terrible  fire  which  the  Turks  ,  poured  into 
them.     We   could   see    through    the    telescope    the    latter 


JO  Czar  and  Sit  It  an 

standing  behind  their  defences  on  which  were  laid  their 
breech-loading  rifles.  Each  man  had  a  heap  of  cartridges 
by  him  and  he  slipped  cartridge  after  cartridge  into  the 
breech  with  inconceivable  rapidity,  closing  it  with  a  turn 
of  the  hand,  pulling  the  trigger,  and  then  throwing  open 
the  breech  again.  It  was  all  done  with  a  minimum  of 
exertion  and  no  aim  w^ts  taken ;  but  there  were  three 
tiers  of  fire  and  the  fire-zone  must  simply  have  been  alive 
with  bullets.  Nevertheless  the  Russians  bored  their  way 
through  this  solid  torrent  of  missiles,  carried  one  after 
another  the  intervening  shelter-trenches,  and  steadily  if 
more  slowly  fared  forward. 

Schahofskoy  would  no  doubt  have  acted  wisely  if  he 
had  contented  himself  with  holding  the  position  his  troops 
had  captured  so  brilliantly  until  he  should  learn  something 
of  Kriidener's  situation  ;  but  there  was  great  temptation 
for  him  to  prosecute  his  success.  It  is  true  that  the 
already  captured  position  was  clearly  not  to  be  compared, 
whether  in  natural  or  artificial  strength,  with  the  strength 
of  the  second  position,  an  isolated  mamelon,  as  Kellar 
afterwards  called  it,  with  batteries  on  the  swell  behind  it. 
But  Schahofskoy  determined  to  go  for  it  and  his  troops 
were  not  the  men  to  baulk  him.  The  order  "  Forward  !  " 
was  sent  and  was  received  with  cheers.  But  the  first 
impetus  was  out  of  the  brave  fellows.  They  hung  a  good 
deal  in  this  second  advance,  exposing  themselves  reck- 
lessly and  falling  fast  but  not  getting  on  with  the  original 
dash.  Schahofskoy  called  up  half  of  his  reserve  brigade 
and  sent  in  the  ii8th  Regiment  (4th  Corps)  to  take  part 
in  the  attack ;  at  the  same  time  ordering  two  of  his  bat- 
teries into  a  position  close  by  the  already  captured  redoubt. 


The  Second  Battle  of  Plevna  71 

The  new  blood  told  at  once.  There  was  a  brisk  forward 
movement  —  the  momentary  hesitation  all  gone.  The 
Turks  evidently  noticed  the  advent  of  the  reinforcements. 
I  observed  through  the  glass  a  couple  of  Turkish  officers 
on  horseback  standing  behind  the  parapet  of  the  second 
redoubt  and  watching  the  oncoming  Russian  masses. 
They  rode  away  at  a  gallop  and  presently  came  back 
with  what  seemed  a  regiment  of  Turks  at  their  horses' 
heels.  I  cannot  tell  you  how  the  affair  happened,  so 
sudden  and  mixed-up  were  the  swiftly-passing  events; 
but  all  of  a  moment  there  was  a  final  spurt  of  white 
smoke  all  along  the  lip  of  the  Turkish  parapet,  through 
which  were  visible  swarms  of  dark-clothed  men  scram- 
bling over  the  ditch  and  up  the  outer  slope  of  the  work. 
On  the  crest  of  the  parapet  itself  there  was  a  short  but 
sharp  struggle.  Then  we  saw  a  crowd  of  men  in  lighter 
blue  in  full  flight  across  the  great  stretch  of  vineyard 
behind  the  redoubt.  Schahofskoy's  men  had  taken  a  full 
half-hour  to  accomplish  the  short  distance  between  the 
two  redoubts  ;  but  at  the  last  they  made  quick  work  of  it 
and  now  they  were  in  possession  of  the  second  as  well  as 
of  the  first  redoubt.  The  effort  had  cost  them  dear.  The 
126th  Regiment  had  led  both  assaults :  its  losses,  as  after- 
wards ascertained,  were  725  men  killed  and  1,247  wounded 
—  a  total  loss  of  about  75  per  cent,  of  its  strength  ! 

The  Russians,  then,  at  about  half-past  five  of  this 
bloody  afternoon  had  carried  two  of  the  Turkish  re- 
doubts; but  their  tenure  was  very  precarious.  Kriidener 
made  no  sign.  The  Turks  had  not  run  far  away  from 
the  second  redoubt,  about  the  northern  and  western  faces 
of  which  they  hung  obstinately  while  the  Turkish  cannon 


72  Czar  and  Sultan 

from  further  rearward  dropped  shell  after  shell  into 
it  with  extraordinary  precision.  About  six  o'clock  the 
Turks  pressed  forward  a  heavy  mass  of  infantry  to  its 
recapture.  The  defence  was  stubborn,  but  the  Moslems 
were  not  to  be  denied ;  and  spite  of  the  stubborn 
Russian  resistance,  they  re-occupied  the  redoubt  by  half- 
past  six. 

Then  the  Turks  had  it  all  their  own  way;  for  they 
brought  forward  great  quantities  of  fresh  troops,  whereas 
Schahofskoy  by  seven  o'clock  had  not  a  man  in  reserve. 
One  of  the  brigades  of  the  30th  division  had  early  in- 
clined to  the  left,  heading  in  the  direction  where  the 
spires  of  Plevna  were  visible.  It  was  a  rash  movement, 
for  the  brigade  was  exposing  a  flank  to  the  Turkish  can- 
non in  the  central  elevation ;  but  the  goal  of  Plevna  was 
a  keen  temptation.  There  was  no  thoroughfare,  how- 
ever. They  would  not  give  up,  and  they  could  not 
succeed.  They  charged  again  and  again  till  they  could 
charge  no  more  for  sheer  fatigue ;  and  then  the  stubborn 
gallant  fellows  stood  leaderless,  for  nearly  all  the  officers 
were  down,  sternly  waiting  death  there  for  want  of  leaders 
to  march  them  back.  The  last  reserves  had  been  thrown 
in  only  to  swell  the  slaughter.  And  then  the  ammunition 
failed,  for  the  carts  had  been  left  far  in  the  rear ;  and  all 
hope  died  out  of  the  heart  of  the  most  sanguine  as  the 
sun  sank  in  lurid  glory  behind  the  blood-stained  and 
smoke-mantled  field. 

The  Turks  struck  without  stint.  They  had  the  upper 
hand  and  were  clearly  determined  to  show  that  they  knew 
how  to  make  the  most  of  it.  Through  the  dusk  they 
advanced  in  swarms  into  their  original  first  position,  and 


The  Second  Battle  of  Plevna  73 

recaptured  their  two  guns  which  the  Russians  had  taken 
in  their  first  assault  but  which  they  had  found  no  oppor- 
tunity to  withdraw.  Turkish  shells  now  again  began  to 
whistle  and  yell  over  the  Radischevo  ridge  and  to  crash 
into  the  village  behind,  by  this  time  crammed  with 
wounded  men.  The  streams  of  wounded  were  incessant. 
The  badly  wounded  lay  where  they  fell  and  were 
butchered  ruthlessly  by  the  Turkish  irregulars,  who 
swarmed  over  the  battle-field  and  smote  and  spared  not. 
We  saw  them  at  their  devilry  when  the  moon  rose ;  and 
in  the  hot  still  night-air  we  could  hear,  and  shuddered  as 
we  heard,  the  shrieks  of  pain,  the  futile  entreaties  for 
mercy,  and  the  yells  of  blood-thirsty  fanatical  triumph. 

The  Russian  defeat  was  complete.  The  remains  of  the 
army  came  sullenly  back  —  companies  that  had  gone  down 
200  strong  returning  by  fives  and  tens.  For  three  hours 
there  had  been  a  steady  current  of  wounded  men  up  from 
out  of  the  battle  to  the  reverse  slope  of  the  Radischevo 
ridge  which  Schahof  skoy  still  held  on  to  grimly  —  back  into 
comparative  safety.  All  around  us  the  air  was  heavy  with 
the  low  moaning  of  the  wounded  who  had  cast  themselves 
down  behind  us  to  gain  relief  from  the  agony  of  motion. 
A  crowd  of  maimed  wretches  had  gathered  around  the 
fountain  at  the  foot  of  the  slope,  craving  with  a  longing 
which  you  may  thank  God  you  will  never  know  for  a  few 
drops  of  the  scanty  water. 

In  this  dreadful  hour  I  could  not  but  admire  Schahofskoy. 
In  the  crisis  of  the  fighting  he  had  been  close  to  us  and 
Villiers  had  made  a  sketch  of  him  as  he  stood  with  set  face 
and  terrible  eager  eyes,  the  working  of  his  lips  and  fingers 
belying  his  forced  composure.     Now  that  the  day  was  lost 


74  Czar  and  Sultan 

beyond  remedy  he  was  cool  and  resolute.  To  protect  his 
wounded  and  rally  what  remained  of  his  force,  he  was 
determined  to  hold  the  ridge  to  the  last  extremity.  He 
ordered  his  bugler  to  sound  the  "Assembly."  Men 
gathered  to  the  sound  singly  and  by  twos  and  threes, 
many  bleeding  from  flesh-wounds  yet  willing  still  to  fight  on. 
But  it  was  barely  a  company  that  came  together  ;  it  seemed 
as  if  the  rest  of  the  army  was  quite  dispersed.  The  com- 
pany was  disposed  along  the  ridge  in  open  order  to  show 
a  semblance  of  force  against  the  enemy.  But  the  numbers 
were  too  scanty  to  afford  even  a  pretence  of  covering  the 
front.  "  Gentlemen,"  said  the  general  to  his  staff, "  we  and 
the  escort  must  take  part  in  holding  the  front ;  these  poor 
wounded  must  not  be  abandoned  !  "  Through  the  growing 
darkness  one  could  watch  the  streaks  of  flame  fore-short- 
ened close  below  us;  and  nerves  tried  by  a  long  day  of 
foodlessness,  excitement,  fatigue,  and  constant  exposure  to 
danger,  quivered  under  the  prolonged  tension  of  endurance 
as  the  throbbing  hum  of  the  bullets  sped  through  or  over 
the  straggling  line.  The  Turks  had  early  got  our  range, 
and  we  could  watch  the  flash  of  flame  over  against  us 
and  then  barken  to  the  scream  of  the  shell  as  it  tore  by 
us.  Schahofskoy  still  hoped  that  belated  troops  would 
come  back  out  of  the  Valley  of  the  Shadow  of  Death 
down  below  us  ;  but  he  was  disappointed.  Meanwhile  the 
ambulance  work  was  going  on  apace.  The  wounded  were 
being  carried  back  from  the  reverse  slope  into  the  com- 
parative safety  of  the  village  in  the  valley  behind  —  merely 
a  comparative  safety,  for  the  shells  reached  it  freely. 

Cavalry  was  brought  up  to  line  the  ridge  and  cover  the 
village  thronged  by  the  wounded  ;  and  about  nine  o'clock 


The  Second  Battle  of  Plevna  75 

Schahofskoy  and  his  staff  quitted  the  front,  threading  their 
way  through  the  prostrate  wounded  who  still  lay  thick  on 
the  reverse  slope.  I  joined  the  party  at  the  invitation 
of  the  general's  chief  of  staff.  He  was  anxious  that 
Villiers  also  should  accompany  the  headquarters ;  but 
I  had  to  tell  him  that  I  did  not  know  where  Villiers  was. 
In  the  confusion  of  the  dusk  he  and  I  had  lost  each  other. 
He  was  ill  and  faint ;  the  strain  of  excitement  and  the 
sight  of  the  slaughter  had  sickened  him.  I  searched 
for  him  without  cessation,  —  along  the  ridge,  on  the  slope, 
and  down  in  the  teeming  village,  —  but  with  no  success. 
He  was  leading  his  pony  when  we  were  whirled  asunder; 
and  I  thought  it  possible  that  he  might  have  ridden  back 
to  Poradim,  intending  to  sleep  there.  I  could  do  no  more, 
and  was  fain  to  go  away  from  the  environment  of  blood  and 
death  with  good-natured  and  friendly  Colonel  Bischofskoy. 
As  we  rode  at  a  walking  pace  through  the  moonlight  a 
cynical  young  lieutenant  came  alongside  me  and  remarked 
in  an  undertone :  "  We  are  following  a  general  who  has 
lost  his  army  going  in  search  of  an  army  which  has  lost 
its  general  who  now,  to  make  the  day's  loss  complete,  has 
lost  his  way."  The  last  statement,  at  all  events,  was  true 
enough.  Nobody  knew  in  the  least  where  we  were.  The 
Cossack  escort  constantly  brought  in  alarms  of  Bashi- 
Bazouks  and  Tcherkesses  swarming  in  upon  the  scattered 
and  retreating  troops.  At  length  about  one  in  the  morn- 
ing we  turned  into  a  harvest-field,  and  making  beds  of  the 
reaped  corn  commander  and  Cossack  rested  under  the 
stars.  But  we  were  not  even  then  allowed  to  have  our  sleep 
out.  Before  sunrise  an  alarm  came  that  the  Bashi-Bazouks 
were  upon  us,  and  we  had  to  rouse  and  tramp  away. 


*j^  Czar  and  Stiltaji 

At  Pelischat,  where  we  found  ourselves  in  the  morning, 
some  troops  were  rallying  and  news  came  in  to  the  gen- 
eral. Kriidener,  it  seemed,  had  fought  hard  although 
with  no  more  success  than  Schahofskoy.  His  final  attack 
on  the  Gravitza  redoubt  was  made  at  sunset  with  his 
whole  force  and  with  great  desperation  —  a  general  officer 
was  killed  within  lOO  yards  of  the  redoubt.  His  artillery 
remained  in  action  all  night,  the  infantry  gradually  with- 
drawing under  its  cover.  Kriidener's  messenger  owned 
quite  frankly  that  their  attack  had  been  a  total  failure: 
"Judging  from  appearances,"  he  added,  "your  people 
have  fared  no  better !  "  The  only  honours  of  the  day 
rested  with  Skobeleff.  With  the  Caucasian  Cossack 
brigade  and  a  single  battalion  of  infantry  he  had  got  close 
up  to  Plevna  and  opened  fire  on  the  place  with  his  four 
guns.  Of  course  he  was  driven  back,  but  he  had  made  a 
successful  diversion  in  favour  of  Schahofskoy ;  and  all 
through  the  day  and  into  the  night  he  maintained  an 
unequal  fight,  and  successfully  hindered  the  Turks  from 
occupying  a  hill  from  which  they  could  have  taken 
Schahofskoy  in  flank  and  destroyed  his  force.  Skobeleff 
had  been  able  even  to  carry  off  his  wounded  ;  and  although 
his  losses  had  been  extremely  heavy  he  had  made  good 
his  retreat,  and  here  he  was  at  Pelischat  in  great  spirits, 
and  offering  to  Schahofskoy  to  go  back  and  seize  the 
Radischevo  ridge  that  same  day  and  hold  it  until  further 
orders.  Schahofskoy  growled  at  the  cheery  man  like  a 
bear  with  a  sore  head.  Skobeleff  took  the  rebuff  quite 
complacently  and  asked  Schahofskoy  for  orders.  The 
prince  sullenly  told  him  to  go  where  he  chose  and  get 
killed   in   any   way    he    might    prefer.     "  Thanks,    Excel- 


The  Second  Battle  of  Plevna  jj 

lency,"  returned  Skobeleff,  as  he  turned  on  his  heel; 
"  I  shall  have  all  the  more  freedom  to  do  a  stroke  of  inde- 
pendent business  on  my  own  account." 

The  Russian  loss  at  Plevna  on  the  30th  July,  I  was  told 
afterwards,  amounted  to  7,300  men  in  a  total  of  30,000 
engaged,  of  which  number  2,400  were  killed  in  action  or 
slaughtered  as  they  lay  wounded.  This  latter  fate  had 
begun  to  perturb  the  Russian  soldiers ;  for  my  part  I  was 
surprised  that  they  continued  to  take  the  risk  so  resolutely. 
For  when  a  man  was  once  down  there  was  no  longer  any 
hope  for  him ;  he  was  in  effect  a  dead  man  already. 
Indeed  his  situation  was  worse  even  than  that.  A  dead 
man  is  dead  and  out  of  his  pain ;  but  the  poor  fellow 
brought  to  the  ground  by  such  a  comparative  trifle  as  a 
broken  ankle,  unless  he  adopted  the  expedient  of  putting 
himself  to  death  then  and  there  as  many  did,  had  to  lie 
and  await  the  torture  and  mutilation  which  he  would  cer- 
tainly have  to  endure  before  some  Turk,  more  humane 
than  his  fellows,  should  give  him  the  death-stab.  I  have 
watched  the  ghouls  at  their  work,  coming  out  with  a  rush 
and  a  shout  after  the  fight,  and  robbing,  mutilating  and 
murdering  with  a  hellish  zest.  I  should  tell  you,  however, 
that  it  was  not  the  Turkish  regular  soldiers  who  com- 
mitted those  atrocities,  but  the  Bashi-Bazouks  and  Tcher- 
kesses  who  hung  about  the  Ottoman  armies  under 
subjection  to  no  discipline  and  left  to  their  own  devices. 
The  responsibility  for  the  actions  of  those  murdering  sav- 
ages nevertheless  attached  itself  to  Turkish  commanders, 
who  could  have  prevented  their  practices  had  they  cared 
to  do  so  and  who  could  not  but  have  been  aware  of  the 
barbarities  they  habitually  committed. 


yS  Czar  and  Sultan 

Neither  at  Pelischat  nor  at  Poradim  could  I  get  any 
tidings  of  Villiers.  An  officer  told  me  that  he  had  last 
seen  him  on  the  previous  evening  in  the  village  of  Radi- 
schevo,  attending  to  the  wounded.  Then  there  came  in 
the  dreadful  intelligence  that  in  the  night  the  Bashi- 
Bazouks  had  got  into  that  village,  where  they  had  fallen 
upon  the  wounded  and  butchered  them  without  mercy. 
In  the  hope  of  meeting  Villiers  or  learning  something 
of  him,  I  rode  back  to  so  near  Radischevo  that  I  was 
fired  upon  by  Turks  on  the  outskirts  of  the  village.  In 
that  direction,  then,  I  could  do  no  more.  My  last  hope 
was  that  he  might  be  ahead  of  me  on  his  way  to  Bucha- 
rest, making  for  the  post  with  the  sketches  with  which  he 
had  filled  his  book  on  the  day  before;  and  I  turned  my 
pony's  head  towards  the  Danube.  At  Sistova,  still  no 
tidings  of  him,  nor  in  Simnitza.  The  station-master  at 
Giurgevo,  who  knew  him  well,  assured  me  that  had 
Villiers  passed  through  he  would  certainly  have  seen  him. 
I  really  brought  the  tidings  of  the  Russian  defeat  to 
Bucharest,  although  rumours  of  it  had  got  there  before  my 
arrival.  MacGahan  I  found  in  Bucharest  back  from 
Gourko's  raid,  very  lame  and  quite  worn  out  with  hard 
work  and  poor  fare.  He  was,  indeed,  quite  prostrate  for 
the  time,  and  I  was  greatly  concerned  about  his  condition. 
But  ill  as  he  was,  he  had  no  thought  but  of  his  duty  to  his 
paper.  He  took  me  into  his  room  and  asked  me  to  write 
down  some  account  of  the  battle  of  the  30th  to  be  tele- 
graphed to  the  Daily  News.  I  told  him  that  was  quite 
above  my  powers ;  but  that  if  he  liked  I  would  tell  him  by 
word  of  mouth  everything  that  I  could  recollect  and  that 
he  could  write  out  my  narrative  in  his  own  style.    I  believe 


The  Second  Battle  of  Plev7ia  79 

I  talked  to  him  for  a  couple  of  hours,  he  making  a  note 
now  and  then  ;  by  the  evening  he  had  written  what  seemed 
to  me  sufficient  to  fill  a  whole  newspaper.  Then  he  took 
a  cab  and  drove  to  the  telegraph  office  with  his  budget. 
In  ten  minutes  he  was  back  again.  It  was  the  only  time 
I  ever  saw  MacGahan  in  a  passion.  It  seemed  that  in 
the  Bucharest  telegraph  office  there  was  a  Russian  "cen- 
sor "  who  read  all  the  messages  that  were  sent  in  and 
stopped  such  as  he  did  not  approve  of.  When  MacGahan 
brought  him  the  account  of  the  defeat  which  he  had  put 
together  from  my  disconnected  narrative,  the  "  censor " 
refused  even  to  look  at  it.  "  Not  a  word  to  be  despatched 
about  any  Russian  mishap!"  —  that  was  his  short  and 
firm  ultimatum.  So  MacGahan  brought  back  his  sheets 
in  great  disgust. 

"By  George!"  he  suddenly  exclaimed,  "I  had  quite 
forgotten.  I  know  how  we  can  do  the  trick  after  all!" 
Then  he  told  me  a  curious  thing.  He  and  his  colleagues 
of  the  Daily  Nczus  quite  early  in  the  campaign  had  fore- 
seen that  occasions  might  occur  when  the  "censor"  in 
Bucharest  might  refuse  to  sanction  the  transmission  of 
inteUigence  adverse  to  the  Russian  cause.  To  meet  such 
a  contingency  they  had  established  a  pony-express  across 
the  Carpathians  from  Ploiesti  in  Roumania  to  Cronstadt 
in  Transylvania,  a  province  of  the  Austrian  Empire.  That 
service  had  never  been  used,  no  occasion  for  it  having 
arisen  ;  but  it  was  still  maintained,  and  Mr.  Cross,  a  Daily 
Neivs  man  who  always  remained  in  Bucharest  to  receive 
despatches  from  the  front  and  forward  them,  sent  money 
weekly  to  meet  the  expenses  of  the  service.  MacGahan 
now  bethought  himself  of  this  expedient ;  and  "  Carnegie," 


8o  Czar  and  Sulian 

said  he,  "  you  must  start  at  once  by  train  to  Ploiesti,  and 
thence  take  the  pony-express  over  the  Balkans."  I  was 
not  half  rested  and  was  full  of  anxiety  about  Villiers ;  but 
I  sort  of  belonged  to  MacGahan  and  he  could  not  ask 
anything  of'me  that  I  would  not  willingly  undertake. 

There  was  a  train  from  Bucharest  in  an  hour.  I  ate 
something,  pocketed  the  despatch,  put  on  a  waistbelt  with 
a  number  of  ducats  in  it  to  defray  the  expense  of  the  jour- 
ney and  of  the  telegram,  bade  good-bye  to  MacGahan  and 
started.  I  was  in  Ploiesti  by  midnight,  took  a  carriage 
there  for  the  first  lo  miles  towards  the  mountains,  found 
the  successive  ponies  just  where  I  had  been  told  by  Cross 
that  they  were,  kept  each  in  succession  at  a  steady  canter 
during  its  lo  miles'  stage,  and  reached  the  Cronstadt 
telegraph  office  at  eight  o'clock  of  August  3rd.  I  handed 
in  the  budget,  showed  the  telegraph  superintendent  the 
gold  I  had  to  pay  for  it,  and  then  went  to  breakfast. 
When  I  returned  the  message  was  already  counted  — 
it  was  several  thousand  words  long,  and  its  transmission 
was  well  begun.  MacGahan  had  written  very  legibly, 
and  the  operator,  who  was  a  German,  fortunately  knew 
some  English  and  said  he  found  no  difficulty  in  the  manu- 
script. So  I  paid,  —  the  sum  was  about  ^400,  — made  the 
operator  a  present  of  a  box  of  cigars,  tipped  the  superin- 
tendent handsomely,  and  by  eleven  was  fairly  on  the  road 
back  to  Bucharest.  I  believe  I  knocked  up  two  or  three 
of  the  ponies,  but  MacGahan  said  the  Daily  News  didn't 
mind  that.  Anyhow,  I  was  by  his  bedside  in  Bucharest 
before  midnight,  having  ridden  160  miles,  made  the  two 
railway  journeys  and  undergone  considerable  delays,  in 
twenty-eight  hours.     "  Good  business  !  "  said   MacGahan, 


The  Second  Battle  of  Plevna 


as  he  turned  on  his  pillow  and  went  to  sleep.  I  followed 
his  example  after  having  eaten  a  hearty  supper.  I  was 
young,  keen,  enterprising,  and  weighed  under  ten  stone 
in  those  days,  my  lads ;  it  was  the  light  weight  that  ena- 
bled me  to  cover  i6o  miles  in  eighteen  hours  on  rats  of 
ponies  not  worth  a  couple  of  pounds  apiece. 

But  there  was  still  no  news  of  Villiers,  and  tired  as  I 
was  my  sleep  was  broken  by  apprehensions  about  him. 
Next  day  we  were  sitting  at  luncheon  in  the  hotel  garden, 
—  Colonel  Wellesley,  Mr.  Kingston,  MacGahan,  and  my- 
self, —  and  the  talk  was  of  Villiers,  because  we  all  knew 
him,  and  to  know  Villiers  was  to  love  him.  I  wonder 
whether  that  good  fellow  and  pleasant  companion  is 
alive  now }  —  if  he  is  I  am  sure  that  he  cannot  have  lost 
the  memory  of  those  adventurous  days  of  1877  when  he 
used  to  sit  in  the  bullet-fire  and  placidly  sketch.  I  think 
he  was  about  the  coolest  under  fire  of  all  the  cool  men  I 
knew  in  those  days,  and  they  were  many ;  yet,  although 
he  did  not  mind  a  big  dog,  he  was  always  in  mortal  terror 
of  a  little  one.  He  owned  to  me  once  that  he  broke  off 
an  engagement  with  a  charming  girl  because  she  would 
not  send  her  pug  out  of  the  room  when  he  came  to  pay 
her  a  call ! 

It  was  a  dreary  meal.  The  question  discussed  was, 
whether  the  time  had  or  had  not  yet  come  when  a  tele- 
gram telling  of  Villiers'  disappearance  in  ominous  circum- 
stances should  be  sent  to  his  parents,  whose  address  I 
happened  to  know  from  having  carried  letters  to  post 
addressed  to  them.  Colonel  Mansfield,  the  British  Min- 
ister to  the  Roumanian  Court,  joined  the  group,  and  his 
advice  having  been  asked  he  judged  it  best  that  another 


82  Czar  and  Sultan 

day  should  be  allowed  to  pass.  Suddenly,  just  as  Colonel 
Mansfield  was  speaking,  I  heard  a  familiar  voice  call 
out:  "Waiter!  quick!  Something  to  eat;  I'm  beastly 
hungry !  " 

It  was  Villiers  !  We  all  jumped  up  and  crowded  around 
him,  asking  him  questions  and  making  snatches  at  his 
hand.  "  What's  the  row  with  you  fellows .? "  he  asked 
with  surprise.  "  I  know  my  nose  is  twice  its  proper  size 
and  there  is  no  skin  on  it ;  but  that  is  the  sun.  I  may  be 
rather  a  holy  show,  what  with  dirt,  and  sun,  and  dust; 
but  I'm  blessed  if  I  know  why  you  keep  staring  at  me 
and  grabbing  at  me ! "  He  became  pacified  when  he 
found  that  we  were  not  amusing  ourselves  at  his  expense, 
but  he  insisted  on  eating  and  drinking  before  he  recounted 
his  experiences. 

Villiers  had  helped  the  surgeons  in  Radischevo  until  he 
grew  tired,  and  he  was  asleep  in  an  ambulance  waggon,  to 
which  he  had  fastened  his  pony,  when  the  Bashi-Bazouks 
entered  the  village.  A  young  surgeon  had  sprung  on  the 
box  in  the  very  nick  of  time  and  had  driven  the  vehicle 
out  of  their  reach  just  as  the  Bashi-Bazouks  came  yelling 
after  it  brandishing  their  knives.  It  was  a  very  near 
shave  —  a  "close  call"  was  MacGahan's  expression  —  the 
quick  action  of  the  young  surgeon  had  unquestionably 
saved  Villiers'  life.  He  had  come  out  safe  from  that 
pandemonium  of  rapine  and  slaughter,  and  had  got  to 
Bucharest  in  time  to  shout  for  food  and  to  save  us  the 
task  of  telegraphing  to  his  parents  apprehensions  which 
would  have  plunged  them  into  grief. 


CHAPTER  V 


DREARY    DAYS 


AFTER  the  battle  of  Plevna  of  July  30th,  I  should 
tell  you  that  the  Russian  advance  in  Bulgaria  was 
brought  to  a  standstill.  It  became  certain  that  the 
200,000  men  with  whom  the  invasion  was  originally 
begun  —  and,  indeed,  it  was  said  that  a  considerable  pro- 
portion of  that  200,000  were  soldiers  only  on  paper  — 
were  inadequate  to  carry  out  the  original  plan  of  cam- 
paign. Turkish  armies  were  on  both  of  the  Russian 
flanks.  Five  corps  were  engrossed  in  trying,  not  very 
successfully,  to  protect  those  flanks ;  one  corps  was  away 
in  the  Dobrutscha;  and  the  only  remaining  corps,  the  8th, 
could  not  cross  the  Balkans  and  march  on  Constantinople 
single-handed.  Since  the  campaign  began  the  Russians 
had  lost  in  killed  and  wounded  about  15,000  men  and 
unquestionably  double  that  number  of  sick.  Their  total 
strength  in  the  first  week  of  August  was  probably,  all 
told,  about  120,000  infantry,  12,000  cavalry,  and  about 
650  guns  of  all  sorts.  It  was  therefore  decided  to  order 
up  from  Russia  the  Guard,  two  divisions  of  Grenadiers, 
four  divisions  of  the  Line,  and  one  Cavalry  division  —  in 
all  about  120,000  men  and  460  guns. 

Meanwhile  the  Russians  were  to  undertake  no  offensive 
operations,   but   were   to   remain   as    quiescent   as    their 

83 


84  Czar  and  Sultan 

enemy  would  allow  them  to  be.  They  held  in  Bulgaria 
a  region  from  the  Danube  to  the  Balkans  about  80 
miles  from  north  to  south ;  from  flank  to  flank  about  the 
same  distance.  On  their  right  flank  was  Osman  at  Plevna 
with  some  50,000  men ;  on  their  left  flank  Mehemet  Ali 
with  65,000  men;  beyond  the  Balkans  and  threatening 
to  cross  the  mountains,  Suleiman  with  40,000  men.  It 
was  reckoned  that  the  Turks  had  in  the  field  nearly 
200,000  men ;  and  I  have  always  wondered  why,  during 
this  interval  of  paralysis  which  the  Russians  had  to 
endure,  the  Turks  did  not  combine  to  go  in  upon  them 
and  heave  them  bodily  into  the  Danube.  That  they  could 
have  done  this  had  the  Turkish  armies  co-operated  with 
each  other  and  had  possessed  any  enterprise,  every 
Russian  officer  at  the  time  ruefully  admitted. 

In  this  period  of  quietude,  the  idea  occurred  to  Villiers 
of  going  to  the  Russian  headquarters  and  making  for  his 
paper  some  portrait-groups  of  the  most  important  persons 
of  the  Imperial  suite.  MacGahan  was  still  invalided  and 
he  gave  me  permission  to  accompany  Villiers.  The  Czar 
was  now  in  Bjela.  Villiers  and  I  had  been  there  before 
when  the  little  town  was  yet  clean  and  sweet,  and  when 
its  inhabitants  were  comparatively  guileless.  Now  things 
were  very  different.  You  could  not  look  at  a  meal  —  and 
a  bitter  bad  meal  too  —  under  a  rouble ;  and  it  was  well 
for  us  that  we  had  brought  Villiers'  waggon  and  tent,  for 
every  hole  and  corner  of  Bjela  was  crammed.  The  streets 
were  foul  to  a  degree  ;  the  air  was  tainted  thick  and  heavy 
with  filth  and  rotting  offal.  The  Great  White  Czar  was  in 
residence  there  ;  yet  no  one  in  authority  took  the  trouble 
to  set  the  lazy  men  of  Bjela,  who  were  doing  nothing  but 


Dreary  Days  85 

get  fat  on  their  exactions,  to  the  task  of  scavenging  the 
stinking  place. 

The  Emperor  was  living  in  the  middle  of  the  town,  in 
the  enclosed  yard  of  a  dismantled  Turkish  house  which  the 
Bulgarians  had  gutted  when  its  occupants  fled.  A  high 
wattled  fence  surrounded  this  yard,  in  which  grew  a  few 
mangy  willow-trees  that  afforded  a  trifling  shade.  The 
offices  were  in  the  battered  Turkish  house.  The  Emperor 
lived  in  two  officers'  tents  communicating  with  each  other 
by  a  canvas-screened  alley-way,  up  in  a  corner  of  the  yard 
under  the  willow-trees.  In  the  centre  of  the  yard  was  the 
large  dining  marquee,  in  which  his  Majesty  joined  at  meals 
the  officers  of  his  suite  and  such  of  the  foreign  military 
attaches  as  were  not  in  the  headquarters  of  the  Com- 
mander-in-Chief. He  breakfasted  alone  in  his  own  tent, 
where  he  worked  all  the  morning  with  Miliutin  the  Min- 
ister of  War ;  Ignatieff  the  diplomatist ;  Adlerberg  the 
chamberlain  of  the  palace  and  the  Emperor's  foster- 
brother,  and  other  high  oflRcials  who  solicited  interviews. 
From  his  camp  in  Bulgaria  Alexander  strove  hard  to 
administer  the  affairs  of  his  huge  empire  whose  capital 
was  many  hundred  miles  distant. 

You  will  understand,  my  lads,  that  all  those  particulars, 
which  may  perhaps  interest  you  as  telling  you  how  simply 
an  Emperor  may  live  on  campaign,  I  only  gathered  at 
second-hand  from  people  who  knew  personally  of  their 
correctness.  By-and-by,  though,  you  will  find  me  telling 
you  of  an  actual  interview  between  the  Great  White  Czar 
and  my  insignificant  self. 

To  continue.  Luncheon  was  served  in  the  great  mar- 
quee, and  all  the  suite  were  wont  to  gather  in  the  yard  for 


86  Czar  and  Sultan 

conversation  a  short  time  in  advance  of  the  precise  hour. 
The  Emperor  came  out  from  his  own  private  tent,  shaking 
hands  with  the  nearest  members  of  the  suite  and  greeting 
always  the  foreign  attaches  as  he  passed  into  the  marquee. 
His  seat  was  in  the  centre  of  the  right-hand  side  of  the 
table,  usually  with  old  General  Suwaroff  on  one  side  of 
him  and  General  Miliutin  on  the  other,  the  foreign  attaches 
sitting  opposite.  The  greatest  simplicity  prevailed  in  the 
fare  served  at  the  Imperial  table  ;  three  courses  were  the 
rule  at  dinner,  and  champagne  was  given  only  on  excep- 
tional occasions.  When  the  time  for  coffee  came  the 
Emperor  gave  the  signal  for  smoking,  and  immediately 
the  marquee  became  filled  with  a  cloud  of  cigarette  smoke. 
He  was  wont  to  talk  freely  at  table,  directing  most  of  his 
conversation  to  the  foreign  officers  opposite  to  him,  and 
very  often,  especially  when  addressing  Colonel  Wellesley, 
the  British  military  attache,  his  tone  was  that  of  what  you 
and  I,  not  being  emperors,  might  caU  "chaff." 

No  elaborate  precautions  to  outward  seeming  were  taken 
for  the  Emperor's  safety,  living  here  as  he  was  in  the 
midst  of  a  curiously-mixed  population  of  wretched  Bulga- 
rians and  prowling  Turks  —  for  all  the  Turks  had  not 
quitted  Bjela.  His  only  escort  consisted  of  a  handful  of 
the  Cossacks  of  the  Imperial  Guard,  on  duty  at  the  en- 
trance of  the  yard  in  which  he  lived.  He  drove  out  every 
day  attended  by  an  escort  of  a  dozen  of  these ;  and  he 
would  make  the  round  on  foot  of  the  hospitals  in  the  en- 
virons of  the  little  town  accompanied  by  a  single  compan- 
ion, a  Cossack  following  a  little  way  in  rear.  He  spent 
many  an  hour  in  talking  with  the  poor  ailing  fellows 
in  the  miserable  apologies  for  hospitals  which   the   half- 


Dreary  Days  ^"^ 

wrecked  Turkish  houses  afforded ;  and  they  used  to  claim 
that  his  kindly  presence  did  them  more  good  than  all  the 
attentions  of  the  military  doctors.  Once  during  a  drive 
Alexander's  eye  fell  upon  a  wretched  company  of  Turkish 
fugitives  among  whom  were  many  women  and  children, 
lurking  in  a  wood.  He  at  once  alighted  and  went  among 
them,  and  by  the  assurance  of  his  protection  he  succeeded 
in  prevailing  on  them  to  return  to  their  homes  in  Bjela, 
where  he  had  them  supplied  with  rations  until  they  were 
able  to  do  something  for  themselves. 

MacGahan,  the  Republican  citizen,  had  a  great  respect 
and  pity  for  the  Emperor  who  was  an  absolute  monarch. 
He  once  wrote  a  character-sketch  of  Alexander  which 
struck  me  so  much  that  I  copied  it  and  have  preserved  it 
to  this  day.  Pray,  Tom,  hand  me  the  writing-case  from 
that  table.  Yes,  here  it  is.  It  will  not  weary  you  for  it  is 
not  long.  You  will  of  course  understand  that  the  Emperor 
survived  MacGahan:  "In  many  respects  Alexander  II.  is 
a  grand  man.  He  is  absolutely  free  from  that  corruption 
which  is  the  blackest  curse  of  Russia,  and  whose  taint  is 
on  the  nearest  relatives  of  the  Great  White  Czar.  He  has 
the  purest  aspirations  to  do  his  loyal  duty  towards  the 
huge  empire  over  which  he  rules,  and  he  never  spares 
himself  in  toilsome  work.  He  takes  few  pleasures ;  the 
melancholy  of  his  position  has  made  sombre  his  feat- 
ures and  darkened  for  him  much  of  the  pleasure  of  life. 
For  he  has  the  bitterest  consciousness  of  the  abuses  that 
are  gradually  alienating  the  subjects  who  had  been  wont, 
in  their  hearts  as  on  their  lips,  to  couple  the  names  of 
'God  and  the  Czar.'  He  knows  how  the  great  nation 
writhes  and  groans ;  and  he,  absolute  despot  though  he  is, 


88  Czar  and  Sultan 

writhes  and  groans  no  less  in  the  realisation  of  his  power- 
lessness  to  cure  the  evil.  For  although  he  is  honest  and 
sincerely  well-intentioned,  there  is  a  fatal  weakness  in  the 
nature  of  Alexander  II.  True,  he  began  his  reign  with  an 
act  of  masterfulness ;  but,  later,  unworthy  favourites  have 
gained  his  ear,  his  family  has  compassed  him  about ;  the 
whole  vast  vis  inertice  of  immemorial  rottenness  and  ob- 
structive officialism  has  lain  and  lies  doggedly  across  the 
hard  path  of  reform.  Alexander's  aspirations  are  power- 
less to  overcome  the  dense,  solid  obstacle ;  and  the  con- 
sciousness of  his  impotence,  with  the  no  less  disquieting 
consciousness  that  it  does  behove  him  to  cleanse  the 
Augean  stable  of  the  Russian  State,  has  embittered  the 
later  years  of  his  life." 

I  hated  this  stay  of  ours  in  Bjela,  and  longed  to  get 
away  from  the  poisonous  place.  Villiers  was  down  wdth 
malarial  fever  in  our  tent  on  the  upland  —  we  had  not 
ventured  to  take  up  quarters  in  the  town  in  every  spare 
corner  of  which  lay  putrefying  dead  horses  and  the 
entrails  of  slaughtered  cattle.  The  natives  did  not  seem 
to  be  affected  by  the  tainted  air,  but  the  illness  it  pro- 
duced affected  the  Russian  soldiers  very  much,  already 
predisposed  to  sickness  as  they  were  by  over-fatigue  and 
bad  food.  The  most  serious  disorder  from  this  cause 
manifested  itself,  however,  among  the  members  of  the 
Emperor's  suite.  General  Ignatieff  was  dangerously  ill 
of  gastric  fever ;  old  Prince  Galitzen  very  nearly  died 
of  the  same  disease,  and  every  one  of  the  Emperor's 
five  general-adjutants  were  disabled  from  duty.  The 
Emperor  himself  never  wholly  recovered  the  effects  of 
this   long   stay   of  his   among   the    nastinesses   of    Bjela. 


Dreary  Days  89 

There  was  a  general  thrill  of  joy  and  relief  when  on 
August  loth  the  order  was  issued  for  the  Imperial 
headquarters  to  leave  Bjela  and  move  about  20  miles 
westward,  to  a  village  named  Gorni-Studen,  nearly  equi- 
distant between  Bjela  and  Poradim  and  about  half-way 
between  the  Danube  at  Sistova  where  the  bridges  were 
—  there  were  two  now  —  and  Tirnova  up  among  the  foot- 
hills of  the  Balkans.  Gorni-Studen  was  a  very  small 
place,  rather  a  hamlet  than  a  village,  but  it  stood  high ; 
and  on  a  hill-top  was  a  fairly  good  house  which  had  be- 
longed to  a  Turkish  gentleman  now  a  fugitive  and  which 
became  the  residence  of  the  Emperor  for  several  weeks. 
Most  of  his  suite  lived  in  tents  on  the  slope  and  in  a 
pleasant  garden  a  little  way  off.  In  this  garden  a  Bucha- 
rest hotel-keeper  set  up  a  restaurant  in  a  marquee,  where 
he  poisoned  his  compulsory  customers  with  abominable 
fare  at  a  tariff  which  made  my  hair  stand  on  end  when 
I  once  ventured  in  and  called  for  a  modest  chop.  Villiers 
and  I  did  not  contribute  much  to  swell  the  plunder  of  the 
headquarter  caterer.  In  the  well  of  the  waggon  a  good 
supply  of  tinned  food  had  been  stored  before  leaving 
Bucharest.  Villiers  had  a  very  good,  although  rather 
stupid,  servant,  who  could  cook  very  well  and  who  had 
a  wonderful  faculty  for  finding  poultry  and  lambs  in  a 
country  where  all  supplies  were  believed  to  have  been 
exhausted. 

At  Gorni-Studen  Villiers  recovered  his  health  and  had 
great  success  with  his  portraiture.  The  Emperor  himself 
gave  him  a  sitting  for  a  sketch,  and  he  "did"  Ignatieff; 
General  Stroukoff,  one  of  the  handsomest  and  bravest 
officers  in  the  Russian    army ;  Orloff  the  Cossack  chief ; 


go  Czar  and  Sultan 

the  Montenegrin  colonel  with  the  impossible  name  —  a 
handsome  giant  with  a  moustache  a  foot  long  and  a  uni- 
form encrusted  with  silver  ornaments  ;  Colonel  Wellesley 
the  British  military  attache  and  many  others.  On  the 
hill-top  opposite  to  the  Emperor's  hill  were  the  head- 
quarters of  his  brother  the  Grand  Duke  Nicholas  the 
Commander-in-Chief.  He  and  his  people  lived  in  tents 
very  comfortably.  Among  his  staff  officers  was  a  hand- 
some young  fellow  who  was  afterwards  to  make  a  great 
name  and  attain  a  high  position,  and  yet  later  to  abandon 
the  advantage  he  had  so  gallantly  and  skilfully  attained, 
to  make  an  unequal  marriage  which  consigned  him  to 
private  life,  and  to  die  in  early  middle-age  after  a  remark- 
able career.  He  was  then  simply  Colonel  Prince  Alex- 
ander of  Battenberg,  but  two  years  later  Europe  knew 
the  young  man  as  Prince  Alexander  of  Bulgaria ;  and 
his  skilful  generalship  and  personal  heroism  at  Slivnitza 
were  among  the  surprises  of  the  time.  Young  as  you 
are,  boys,  you  must  be  familiar  with  the  career  of  Prince 
Alexander,  whose  subjects  in  a  sense  you  and  I  were  from 
1879  until  he  was  kidnapped  by  traitors  in  August,  1886, 
and  to  our  sorrow  held  that  honour  and  duty  called  on 
him  to  abdicate. 


CHAPTER   VI 

THE    CRISIS    OF    THE    SCHIPKA    PASS 

IT  was  on  the  early  morning  of  August  22nd  that  General 
Ignatieff  came  into  our  tent,  and  informed  Villiers  that 
Suleiman  Pasha  was  "  hammering  with  forty  battalions  at 
the  Schipka  Pass,  the  garrison  of  which  was  only  twenty 
companies  strong."  This  was  great  news  :  there  had  been 
no  fighting  to  speak  of  for  three  weeks,  and  the  GrapJiic 
had  written  to  Villiers  that  it  did  not  care  for  more  por- 
traits but  was  anxious  for  more  battle  pictures.  We  left 
waggon  and  tent  under  the  charge  of  the  driver  in  the 
garden  on  the  Gorni-Studen  hill,  and  were  on  horseback 
within  twenty  minutes  after  Ignatieff  had  left  the  tent. 
Our  ponies  were  fresh,  the  weather  was  not  unpleasantly 
warm,  the  road  was  fair  and  through  a  pretty  country, 
and  we  were  hurrying  to  see  important  and  perhaps  deci- 
sive fighting.  We  regarded  ourselves  as  in  rare  luck, 
blessed  Ignatieff,  and  cantered  on  in  exuberant  spirits. 

Leaving  Tirnova  well  on  the  left  we  set  our  faces  towards 
Gabrova,  the  town  lying  at  the  northern  foot  of  the  Schipka 
Pass.  For  great  part  of  the  way  we  abandoned  the  high 
road  with  its  clouds  of  dust  and  long  trains  of  creaking 
provision-waggons,  and  rode  by  the  narrow  hill-tracks, 
which  at  once  shortened  the  way  and  made  it  pleasanter. 
We  threaded  glen  after  glen,  climbed  steep  after  steep, 

91 


92  Czar  mid  Sultan 

passed  through  sweet-lying  village  after  village,  all  bowered 
in  foliage.  We  rode  through  thick  woods  whose  dense 
foliage  shaded  us  from  the  sunrays ;  by  wimpling  streams 
on  which  were  rushing  mill-races ;  and  then  came  the  cool 
splash  of  the  water  over  the  moss-grown  water-wheel,  and 
the  scent  of  balsam  and  thyme  from  the  miller's  garden 
fringed  by  willows  whose  tresses  dipped  into  the  stream. 
We  rode  through  verdant  meadows,  our  horse-hoofs  tram- 
pling the  rich  grass ;  and  by  fountains  from  whose  carved 
face  sprang  a  jet  of  clear  cold  water,  grateful  alike  to 
parched  throat  and  burning  temples.  We  skirted  vine- 
yards where  heavy  masses  of  dark-green  foliage  but  half- 
screened  the  clusters  of  grapes  just  beginning  to  soften 
into  ripeness;  by  orchards  over  whose  fences  the  plum- 
branches  nodded  heavy  with  yellow  and  purple  globes ; 
by  snug  detached  farm-buildings,  each  one  the  residence 
of  several  families  all  closely  related  to  each  other  and 
forming  a  kind  of  little  tribe.  And  so  by  devious  tracks 
we  came  back  into  the  valley  of  the  Jantra,  and  found 
ourselves  looking  down  into  the  picturesque  town  of 
Drenova  which  lies  on  the  banks  of  that  rapid  stream. 

In  Drenova,  where  we  rested  a  couple  of  hours,  we 
found,  also  resting,  the  55th  (Podolsk)  Regiment,  on 
march  to  reinforce  the  Schipka.  Villiers  and  I  both 
recognised  the  colonel  of  the  regiment,  Duhonin,  as  hav- 
ing seen  him  on  the  morning  of  the  crossing  of  the 
Danube.  The  blood  was  then  flowing  down  the  blade  of 
his  drawn  sword  from  a  bayonet-wound  on  the  right  wrist 
which  he  had  received  in  leading  the  assault  on  the  height 
above  the  Tekir-Dere  creek.  He  gave  us  tea  and  told  us 
all  the  news.     It  appeared  that  so  early  as  the   i8th  Sulci- 


The  Crisis  of  the  ScJiipka  Pass  93 


man  had  been  demonstrating  against  the  Hainkioj  and 
Elena  passes,  and  that  on  the  same  day  his  advance  had 
reached  Kezanlik  near  the  southern  foot  of  the  Schipka 
Pass.  Radetski,  commanding  the  8th  Corps,  was  at 
Tirnova  when  these  tidings  came  in.  He  immediately 
ordered  a  regiment  from  Selvi  to  hurry  to  the  reinforce- 
ment of  the  Schipka ;  but  deceived  by  the  demonstration 
against  the  Elena  Pass  he  had  marched  there  with  part  of 
Dragomiroff's  Division  and  the  4th  Rifle  Brigade.  Find- 
ing all  quiet  in  that  region  he  had  returned  to  Tirnova  on 
the  2 1  St,  and  now,  on  the  morning  of  this  day  (the  22nd), 
in  spite  of  their  fatigue,  he  had  put  on  march  two  brigades 
with  orders  to  push  energetically  to  the  Schipka.  It  was 
the  leading  regiment  of  that  force  on  which  we  had 
chanced  here  in  Drenova ;  and  there  we  left  it,  hurrying 
on  to  reach  Gabrova  before  sundown.  Before  arriving 
there  we  heard  the  cannon-fire  away  to  our  left  front ;  it 
died  down  partly  as  the  darkness  fell. 

In  Gabrova  we  got  all  particulars  as  to  the  situation  on 
the  Schipka.  General  Darozhinsky,  who  was  in  command 
of  the  force  of  5,000  men  all  told  —  the  36th  Regiment 
and  the  Bulgarian  Legion  —  which  consisted  the  garrison 
of  the  Schipka,  had  seen  from  the  pass  on  the  20th  Sulei- 
man's whole  army  of  40  battalions  deploy  on  the  plain  at 
his  feet.  The  Russian  general,  not  a  very  energetic  man 
we  were  given  to  understand,  had  a  sort  of  chain  of  defen- 
sive positions  along  the  road  crossing  the  pass,  and  those 
he  had  manned  thus :  One  battalion  behind  St.  Nicholas, 
4i  battalions  along  the  "  Central  Hill,"  l\  battalions  as  a 
reserve  on  the  "  isthmus  "  between  the  Central  and  the  St. 
Nicholas  Hills.  He  had  in  all  30  guns,  which  were  allotted 
to  the  respective  positions. 


94  Czar  and  Sultan 


He  had  made  his  dispositions  just  in  time,  and  the 
Turks  were  exceptionally  prompt.  On  the  morning  of 
the  2 1  St  they  had  established  a  battery  on  the  Berdek 
Hill  on  the  Russian  left,  and  at  noon  assailed  with  des- 
perate fury  the  left  flank  of  the  St.  Nicholas  position. 
Again  and  again  with  fierce  shouts  of  "Allah!"  they 
charged  up  almost  to  the  muzzles  of  the  Russian  cannon, 
but  were  steadfastly  repulsed  with  heavy  losses.  Their 
attacks  lasted  until  after  sundown  and  their  final  rush  was 
made  in  the  moonlight.  Recoiling  from  the  staunch  de- 
fence they  maintained  a  heavy  fire  throughout  the  night 
at  close  range.  On  the  following  morning  they  confined 
themselves  chiefly  to  artillery  fire  and  the  development  of 
their  positions  until  by  nightfall,  in  spite  of  the  Russian 
fire,  they  had  established  batteries  in  front,  on  either  flank, 
and,  indeed,  all  but  in  the  rear  of  Darozhinsky's  position. 
Their  infantry  were  in  full  occupation  of  both  the  flanking 
spurs,  and  their  cross-fire  and  that  of  the  Moslem  guns 
swept  and  searched  the  whole  of  the  bare  central  saddle 
held  by  the  Russians,  while  the  road  in  their  rear  was 
threatened  from  both   sides. 

I  daresay  you  youngsters  consider  those  details  as 
very  dull  and  dry,  and  I  do  not  deny  that  to  follow  them 
demands  close  attention.  But  if  you  really  want  thor- 
oughly to  understand  the  sort  of  fighting  which  occurred 
in  the  Schipka  Pass  at  this  period  of  the  campaign  —  and 
you  have  assured  me  that,  from  what  you  saw  there  with 
your  own  eyes,  you  would  have  given  anything  to  have 
had  with  you  some  one  who  was  actually  on  the  spot  when 
that  fighting  was  going  on  and  who  could  tell  you  every- 
thing from  his  own  recollection  —  you  must  keep  firm  in 


The  Crisis  of  the  Schipka  Pass  95 

your  mind  those  dispositions  I  am  describing  to  you  and 
trying  to  make  as  simple  as  possible. 

We  were  up  by  daybreak  on  the  morning  of  the  23rd. 
Before  then  we  had  been  awakened  by  the  sound  of  the 
renewed  cannonade  —  if,  indeed,  it  had  stopped  at  all 
during  the  night.  As  the  gusts  of  cannon-thunder  came 
sweeping  down  the  ravines  and  eddying  along  the  quaint 
old  streets  of  Gabrova,  the  townsfolk  gathered  in  anxious 
groups  and  whispered  with  pale  lips.  It  had  volumes  of 
awful  meaning  for  them,  that  sullen  booming  up  on  the 
Schipka  yonder,  not  three  hours'  climb  from  their  doors. 
While  the  Russians  stood  their  ground  up  there,  the  pale 
citizens  were  safe  ;  but  let  them  be  worsted,  and  a  few 
short  hours  would  see  the  leaders  of  the  hordes  of  mur- 
derous Tcherkesses  riding  down  the  old  main  street,  with 
the  fierce  lust  of  blood  in  their  cruel  eyes.  For  the 
Russians  to  be  worsted  signified  Gabrova  in  a  blaze ;  and 
meant,  too,  the  letting  loose  of  a  swarm  of  savages  on  the 
vast  masses  of  fugitive  people  through  whom  we  had 
passed  the  day  before,  and  who  were  bivouacking  in 
every  field  and  under  every  tree  from  Gabrova  to  Drenova. 
For  the  Bulgarians,  then,  each  moment  was  an  agony  of 
suspense.  When  we  reached  the  pass,  Russian  officers 
owned  to  Villiers  that  for  once  in  their  reckless  lives  they 
felt  the  burden  of  an  awful  responsibility  in  the  remem- 
brance of  those  poor  fugitive  women  and  children  crowded 
in  the  valley  below.  We  were  sure  that  the  Russian 
soldiers  were  fighting  all  the  more  stoutly  because  they 
realised  how  much  depended  on  their  staunchness.  We 
had  seen  the  good  fellows  we  had  fallen  in  with  the  day 
before    empty  their  haversacks  into  the   laps    of    hungry 


96  Czar  and  Sultan 

Bulgarian  women  and  children,  although  their  charity  left 
themselves  foodless  without  a  guess  when  they  should 
eat  next.  We  had  seen  them  grope  into  their  pockets, 
fish  out  the  poor  copecks  which  they  had  been  saving  for 
schnapps  and  tobacco,  and  bestow  the  coppers  on  the 
gaunt  children  of  the  fugitives,  with  some  word  of  rude 
jocularity  under  which  was  real  tenderness. 

Leaving  Gabrova  in  the  pale  half-light  of  the  dawn,  we 
made  forward  along  the  beautiful  romantic  valley  of  the 
Jantra  through  beech-forests  in  which  were  many  clearings 
and  little  villages.  The  roar  of  cannon  high  above  us  — 
it  seemed  in  the  very  clouds  —  swelled  in  louder  and  yet 
louder  volume  as  we  drew  nearer ;  and  wounded  men  were 
already  trickling  to  the  rear,  a  sure  token  that  the  fighting 
had  been  warm  and  close  from  its  very  commencement. 
Suddenly  the  road  left  the  Jantra  valley  and  bending 
sharp  to  the  left  struck  up  the  mountain-side.  The  steep 
ascent  lasted  for  about  three  miles.  The  road  was  ex- 
tremely tortuous,  having  to  turn,  twist  and  wriggle  to  take 
advantage  of  the  rugged  ground.  Very  steep  in  places, 
it  was  quite  practicable  for  vehicles,  having  been  recon- 
structed by  the  pioneers  during  the  Russian  occupation. 
Patches  of  the  old  road  remained,  avalanches  of  boulders 
hurled  in  heaps  over  fixed  jagged  rocks.  About  3|  miles 
from  the  foot  we  reached  the  "  Karaula  "  —  the  hut  which 
had  been  the  Turkish  custom-house.  At  the  little  khan  a 
few  hundred  yards  further  on,  was  the  dressing-place  of 
the  third  line,  whither,  after  having  their  wounds  roughly 
bound  up  in  the  fighting  line,  came  such  soldiers  as  were 
able  to  walk.  This  place  and  its  vicinity  were  already 
thronged  with  severely-wounded  men,  among  whom  was 


The  Crisis  of  the  Schipka  Pass  97 

an  extraordinary  proportion  of  officers.     Two  colonels  were 
being  brought  in  as  we  passed. 

We  halted  here  for  a  little  time,  while  Villiers  made  a 
rough  sketch  of  the  ground  in  our  front.  It  was  apparent 
at  once  that  the  Schipka  Pass,  as  you  must  have  recog- 
nised when  you  crossed  it,  was  no  pass  at  all  in  the  usual 
sense  of  the  word.  There  is  no  gorge,  no  defile.  It 
probably  is  so  termed  simply  because  at  this  point  there 
happens  to  be  a  section  of  the  Balkans  of  less  than  the 
average  height,  the  surface  of  which  from  the  Jantra  val- 
ley to  the  village  of  Schipka  is  sufficiently  continuous  to 
afford  space  for  a  practicable  road.  The  ground  on  either 
side  of  this  continuous  saddle  is  depressed  in  some  places 
into  shallow  hollows,  in  others  into  cavern-like  cups,  and 
the  ground  on  either  side  of  the  road  presents  a  wild  and 
broken  jumble  of  crag  and  ravine.  The  highest  point  of 
the  pass  is  at  the  St.  Nicholas  Hill,  where  the  road  crosses 
the  summit ;  but  this  central  hill  was  flanked  on  either 
side  by  a  mountainous  spur  higher  than  itself  and  so  com- 
manding it,  as  well  as  having  the  command  of  the  central 
saddle  by  which  the  road  attains  the  summit.  The  Turks 
held  both  those  spurs,  whence  their  fire  flanked  and  swept 
the  central  Schipka  ridge.  It  was  this  which  constituted 
the  weakness  of  the  Russian  position  on  the  Schipka. 
The  Turks  could  and  did  descend  from  the  flanking  spurs, 
struggle  through  the  intervening  glens,  and  climbing  on 
either  side  up  the  steep  of  the  central  ridge,  they  were 
trying  to  join  hands  in  rear  of  the  Russian  position  on  the 
road  running  along  the  backbone  of  the  saddle  towards 
the  summit. 

It  seemed  to  us,  as  we  stood  gazing,  that  the  Turkish 


98  Czar  and  Sultan 

cannon-fire  we  saw  in  action  commanded  the  whole  Rus- 
sian position,  in  front,  on  both  flanks,  and  even  from  its 
rear.  Up  to  the  main  entrenchment  on  St.  Nicholas  Hill 
was  a  distance  of  about  two  miles,  and  every  foot  of  the 
road  seemed  exposed  to  fire.  It  was  not  a  pleasant  pros- 
pect, but  there  was  no  alternative,  and  fortunately  for  the 
time  there  was  not  much  musketry  fire  ;  so  we  started. 
Dead  men  lay  about  the  road  rather  ominously;  shells 
burst  rather  closer  than  we  liked,  and  bullets  kept  striking 
the  road  about  us  and  ricochetting  viciously.  I  don't  care 
to  talk  about  that  tramp ;  I  know  I  was  very  thankful 
when  it  was  over.  The  worst  nuisance  was  that  at  com- 
manding points  Villiers  would  stop,  serenely  sit  down, 
bring  out  his  sketch-book,  and  betake  himself  to  drawing 
some  group  that  caught  his  fancy,  or  some  battery  over 
against  him  which,  as  like  as  not,  was  actually  trained 
on  himself.  I  own  that  at  those  junctures  I  lay  down 
behind  a  rock  —  not  that  this  was  any  important  protec- 
tion, because  of  the  thoroughness  of  the  Turkish  cross-fire. 
Once  inside  the  chief  redoubt.  Generals  Darozhinsky  and 
Stolietoff  —  it  was  the  latter  who  in  the  following  year  was 
the  head  of  the  Russian  mission  to  Cabul  which  brought 
about  the  Afghan  War  of  1878-79  —  received  us  very 
cordially.  They  were  short  of  most  things  —  short  of  food, 
short  of  water,  shortest  of  ammunition  ;  but  there  still  was 
tea,  and  that  was  served.  The  firing  died  down  somewhat 
in  the  late  afternoon,  but  a  dropping  fire  was  maintained 
until  after  sundown.  A  tent  was  assigned  us  and  we  were 
advised  to  lie  down  without  delay  —  the  prostrate  attitude 
was  recognised  on  the  Schipka  as  the  safest.  All  through 
the  night  the  Turkish  batteries  maintained  an  intermittent 


The  Crisis  of  the  Schipka  Pass  99 

fire  to  which  the  Russians  made  scarcely  any  reply,  their 
ammunition  being  almost  exhausted.  The  situation  on  the 
morning  of  the  23rd  even  I,  quite  inexperienced  in  war  as 
I  was,  could  not  but  realise  to  be  all  but  desperate.  The 
Turkish  infantry  were  now  in  full  possession  of  both  the 
flanking  spurs  :  it  was  clear  to  us  that  the  Russian  position 
was  well-nigh  entirely  surrounded  ;  the  narrow  ridges 
along  which  ran  the  high-road  by  which  were  connected 
the  little  hills  held  by  the  Russians,  were  now  wholly 
exposed  to  the  Turkish  cross-fire  at  a  range  of  from  1,500 
to  2,000  yards. 

Darozhinsky  wore  a  very  sombre  face  as  he  called 
Villiers  and  myself  to  drink  a  glass  of  tea  with  him  in  the 
early  morning.  Stolietoff  was  more  cheerful,  but  that  was 
the  nature  of  the  man ;  he  owned  with  a  laugh  that  he 
expected  us  all  to  be  dead  men  before  many  more  hours 
should  have  passed.  At  six  o'clock  began  the  Turkish 
onslaught,  the  cannon-fire  covering  the  rushing  advance 
of  the  infantry.  The  assaults  were  furious  and  concentric  : 
as  one  attack  was  hurled  back  another  was  immediately 
made  by  fresh  troops.  I  could  not  but  smile  at  Villiers' 
devotion  to  his  own  particular  duty ;  but  the  smile  was 
melancholy  enough  —  for,  to  tell  you  frankly,  I  had  not 
the  least  hope  that  the  sketches  he  was  working  on  so 
calmly  and  assiduously  would  ever  reach  the  Graphic  office. 
I  did  not  believe  that  a  man  of  us  would  ever  quit  the 
Schipka  alive.  Noon  came  with  no  pause  in  the  strife ; 
the  worn  Russians  and  Bulgarian  Legion  still  fought  on 
staunchly.  But  the  odds  were  cruel.  Darozhinsky,  as  he 
came  back  panting  from  heading  a  counter-attack,  owned 
that  the  end  was  very  near — -the  fight  was  too   unequal 


lOO  Czar  and  Sultan 

between  his  7,000  Russians  and  Bulgarians,  and  the  25,000 
Turks  who  were  besetting  us  on  every  side.  Stolietoff 
came  up  and  the  two  generals  wrote  what  they  believed 
to  be  their  last  message  to  their  master  the  Czar.  It  was 
a  short  and  simple  message  coming  straight  from  the 
hearts  of  brave  and  loyal  soldiers  who  had  done  their  best 
and  could  do  no  more.  Darozhinsky  read  it  to  Villiers  and 
I  well  remember  its  tenor.  "  We  are  all  but  surrounded," 
thus  it  ran,  "  by  a  force  more  than  thrice  our  strength.  The 
men  are  spent ;  the  ammunition  is  all  but  done.  We  shall 
hold  out  to  the  end  and  fight  till  we  die."  The  despatch 
was  entrusted  to  a  Bulgarian  to  be  carried  back  to  Gabrova 
and  thence  telegraphed  to  Gorni-Studen.  Darozhinsky 
had  little  hope  that  the  man  would  get  through ;  but  the 
Bulgarian  was  confident  in  his  knowledge  of  the  by-paths. 
He  departed.  The  fighting  continued.  Villiers  resumed 
his  sketching.  The  Russians  were  fighting  against  hope 
and  simply  bracing  themselves  to  die  hard.  The  reserves 
were  engaged  to  the  last  man.  "Look  at  them!"  said 
Darozhinsky  with  melancholy  pride,  —  "  how  they  hold  on, 
the  brave  fellows !  They  have  been  under  a  constant 
cross-fire  for  forty-eight  hours,  they  are  blistered  by  the 
fierce  heat,  they  are  parched  with  thirst,  they  are  weak  for 
want  of  food,  and  yet  they  do  not  quail  or  grumble !  " 
But  an  hour  later  he  owned  that  the  long  strain  was  at  last 
telling.  The  wounded  who  could  move  were  going  rear- 
ward to  the  field-hospital  in  so  great  numbers  as  to  create 
among  the  yet  unwounded  men  the  impression  that  a  gen- 
eral retreat  had  been  ordered.  And  this  moment  of  con- 
fusion and  wavering  was  promptly  chosen  by  the  Turks 
for  an   attack  in   force   from    the  western  flanking  spur 


TJic  Crisis  of  the  Schipka  Pass  loi 

towards  the  high  road  in  rear  of  the  Russian  position,  while 
at  the  same  time  another  column  from  the  eastern  spur 
moved  down  to  join  hands  with  it.  The  final  crisis  was 
imminent.  Colonel  Lipinski,  gathering  about  him  a  few 
ragged  companies  of  trusty  soldiers,  rallied  them  to  face  the 
oncoming  Turks  with  feeble  despairing  volleys ;  but  their 
efforts  availed  but  little  against  the  hordes  climbing  the  steep 
slope  to  gain  the  road,  give  the  hand  to  the  co-operating 
column,  cut  off  the  retreat  of  the  Russians,  and  pen  them 
up  in  their  narrow  and  exposed  position. 

Never  to  my  dying  day  shall  I  forget  that  thrilling  hour. 
As  the  afternoon  shadows  were  falling,  Darozhinsky  and 
Stolietoff,  with  Villiers  and  myself  by  their  side,  stood  in 
the  Turkish  fire  on  the  parapet  of  the  central  entrench- 
ment. Along  the  bare  ridge  above  and  below  us  lay  the 
grimed,  sun-blistered  men,  beaten  out  with  heat,  fatigue,  hun- 
ger and  thirst ;  reckless  in  their  despondency,  that  every  foot 
of  ground  was  swept  by  the  Turkish  rifle-fire.  Others  still 
doggedly  fought  on  down  among  the  rocks,  forced  to  give 
ground  but  doing  so  with  sullen  reluctance.  The  cliffs 
and  valleys  echoed  with  triumphant  shouts  of  "Allah  il 
Allah  !  "  The  glasses  of  the  chiefs  scanned  the  visible 
glimpses  of  the  steep  brown  road  leading  up  from  the  Jantra 
valley,  through  copses  of  dark  green  and  masses  of  darker 
rock.  Stolietoff  cried  aloud  in  sudden  access  of  excite- 
ment, grasped  Darozhinsky  by  the  elbow,  and  pointed 
down  the  pass.  Through  the  glasses  the  head  of  a  long 
black  column  was  plainly  to  be  discerned  against  the 
reddish-brown  road-bed.  "  Now  God  be  thanked  !  "  uttered 
Darozhinsky  solemnly  ;  he  was  a  dead  man  twenty-four 
hours  later.     Both  chiefs  bared  their  heads  and  crossed 


I02  Czar  and  Sultan 


themselves.  The  troops  about  us  sprang  to  their  feet; 
they  too  had  descried  the  long  black  serpent  coiling  onward 
up  the  brown  road.  Through  the  hanging  pine-woods 
there  flashed  a  glint  of  sunshine  that  danced  on  the  bayo- 
nets and  inspirited  the  soldiers. 

The  Turkish  war-cries  were  drowned  in   the  cheering 
which  the  wind  carried  from  the  sore-pressed  defenders  of 
the    Schipka  to  welcome  the  comrades  hurrying  to  help 
them.     As  the  dark  serpent-like  column  neared  the  rear- 
ward position,  it  struck  us  all  as  a  strange  kind  of  rein- 
forcement, as  seen  from  where  we  stood.     A  big  man  on 
a  big  horse  rode  in  front ;  behind  him  followed,  to  all  ap- 
pearance, a  column  of  cavalry  !     Stolietoff  burst  out  laugh- 
ing.    "Cavalry  in  the  Schipka! "  he  snorted ;  "deal  of  use 
horse  will  be  among  these  rocks  !     Are  we  Russians  all 
born  idiots,  then  .?  "     But  Stolietoff  was  an  impulsive  man 
and  he  presently  took  back  his  hasty  words.    The  big  leader 
was  brave  old  Radetski,  the  corps-commander ;  his  follow- 
ing was  a  rifle  battalion  which  he  had  mounted  on  Cossack 
ponies  and  hurried  forward,  himself  at  its  head.     The  rifle 
brigade  to  which  the  battalion  belonged  —  the  same  rifle 
brigade  which  had  fought  so  hard  under  Gourko    in  his 
daring  advance  and  bloody  retreat  —  was  close  up  behind; 
it  had  marched  thirty-five  miles  straight  on  end  without 
halting  to  cook  or  sleep,  and  was  now  climbing  up  from 
Gabrova  burning  to  come  into  action.     But  Radetski  did 
not  wait  for  the  arrival  of  the  brigade.     He  struck  promptly 
with  the  battalion  which  was  already  to  his  hand.     He 
dismounted  the  nimble  riflemen  from  the  Cossack  ponies 
and  formed  them  up  ;  and  then  he  sent  them  with  a  rush 
down  into  the  rightward  valley  on  the  flank  of  the  Turkish 


The  Crisis  of  the  Schipka  Pass  103 

mass  threatening  to  enclose  the  position.  By  this  time 
the  old  chief  had  been  joined  by  Darozhinsky  and  Stolietoff, 
whom  Villiers  and  I  had  accompanied  —  Villicrs  and  he 
were  old  friends  since  before  the  crossing  of  the  Danube, 
and  Radetski  greeted  him  warmly.  The  staff-officer  who 
was  with  the  chief,  and  who  headed  the  attack  of  the  rifle 
battalion,  was  none  other  than  the  Captain  Andreiovitch 
who  was  MacGahan's  Khivan  comrade  and  with  whom, 
you  may  remember  that  I  told  you,  he  had  foregathered 
again  in  Tirnova  at  the  beginning  of  Gourko's  raid.  An- 
dreiovitch was  a  major  now  ;  he  had  distinguished  himself 
greatly  in  the  cavalry  action  at  Eski-Zagra,  and  when 
Gourko's  expedition  returned  to  Tirnova  Radetski  had 
posted  him  to  his  own  staff.  Presently  I  shall  have  some- 
thing more  to  tell  you  about  this  Andreiovitch. 

Before  the  charge  of  the  Russian  riflemen  the  Turks 
gave  ground.  The  riflemen,  Andreiovitch  at  their  head, 
chased  the  Moslems  through  the  valley  strewn  thick  with 
the  dead  of  the  previous  fighting,  hunted  them  fiercely 
up  the  opposite  wooded  ascent,  carried  their  advanced 
trenches,  and  drove  them  into  their  fortified  position  on 
the  Bald  Mountain.  Radetski  himself  waited  by  his 
mountain  battery  in  action  till  the  rifle  brigade  came 
up,  and  then  marched  it  forward  under  the  long  gauntlet 
of  the  Turkish  fire,  dropping  a  company  here  and  a  half- 
battalion  there,  until  with  what  of  the  command  was  still 
at  his  back  he  entered  the  St.  Nicholas  redoubt  along  with 
Darozhinsky,  Stolietoff,  and  ourselves. 

A  single  weak  brigade  was  not  in  itself  a  very  strong 
succour;  but  Radetski  was  able  to  tell  that  Dragomiroff 
with  his  whole  division  was  hurrying  on   at  best  speed. 


I04  Czar  and  Sultan 

The  Turks  seemed  to  realise  that  their  opportunities  were 
on  the  wane,  and  they  attacked  again  and  again  with 
great  fury.  But  now  the  Russians,  although  suffering 
heavy  losses,  confined  themselves  no  longer  to  the  defen- 
sive ;  for  they  knew  that  for  them  there  could  be  no 
safety,  far  less  elbow-room,  until  the  Turks  should  be 
driven  from  that  ridge  which  loomed  so  threateningly 
on  their  right  flank.  The  firing  weakened  before  sun- 
down, and  at  length  we  had  something  which  could  be 
called  a  meal.  Radetski  had  brought  up  a  two-wheeled 
baggage  cart  which  contained  proviant  as  well  as  baggage. 
There  was  no  lack  of  cooks  ;  the  general  was  good  enough 
to  invite  Villiers  and  myself  to  be  his  guests  with  Daro- 
zhinsky  and  Stolietoff,  and  in  contrast  to  the  gloominess 
of  the  day  the  evening  was  very  cheery.  Radetski  had  a 
fund  of  quaint  humour  of  the  old-fashioned  type.  He  was 
not  a  man  of  great  culture  nor  was  he  supposed  to  be  a 
great  strategist,  but  he  had  a  well-deserved  reputation  for 
dogged  hard  fighting ;  and  I  remember  to  have  heard  that 
critics  of  the  war  reckoned  him  next  to  Gourko  and  Skobe- 
leff.  As  to  that  you  will  believe  that  a  civilian  like  myself 
cannot  speak ;  but  I  can  tell  of  many  a  pleasant  hour  spent 
in  the  company  of  the  fine  old  chief  over  glasses  of  tea. 
I  have  heard  British  officers  who  knew  both  men,  say  that 
Radetski  and  Lord  Napier  of  Magdala  resembled  each 
other  in  features  and  figure  in  a  most  extraordinary 
degree. 

Early  on  the  morning  of  the  24th  General  Dragomiroff 
arrived  with  his  leading  brigade  consisting  of  the  Podolsk 
and  Jitomer  regiments,  which  had  marched  thirty-eight 
miles    on    the    previous    day.      The    Podolsks    he    left    in 


The  Crisis  of  the  Schipka  Pass  105 

reserve  and  they  later  in  the  day  assailed  without  success 
the  Turkish  flank  on  the  Bald  Mountain  spur.  The 
Jitomers  he  led  forward  along  the  road  under  the  heavy 
fire  which  the  Turks  maintained  on  it  throughout  the  day. 
VilHers,  to  whom  he  had  been  very  kind  in  Roumania  and 
at  the  crossing  of  the  Danube,  went  down  to  meet  the 
general,  and  I  accompanied  him ;  we  encountered  him 
about  ten  o'clock  while  he  was  ranking  his  soldiers  in 
preparation  for  an  attack.  He  was  shaking  hands  with 
Villiers  when  he  was  struck  by  a  bullet  in  the  knee-joint. 
There  was  no  surgeon  present  and  Villiers,  who  had  learnt 
some  surgery  in  the  Servian  campaign  of  the  previous 
year,  cut  away  the  trouser  and,  assisted  by  myself,  set 
about  bandaging  the  wound.  The  general  had  fallen 
when  hit,  and  the  soldiers  had  carried  him  into  the  cover 
of  a  shallow  shelter-trench  where  he  lay  in  comparative 
safety.  It  was  clear  that  the  wound  was  serious :  the 
knee-joint  seemed  quite  shattered  and  it  was  impossible 
for  us  to  do  more  than  to  bandage  the  joint  and  have  him 
taken  down  to  the  field-hospital  some  distance  to  the  rear. 
A  stretcher  was  made  of  rifles  and  soldiers'  greatcoats 
and  he  was  slowly  carried  down  along  the  exposed  road. 
Two  of  the  bearers  were  shot  down  on  the  way.  Dra- 
gomiroff  throughout  was  perfectly  cool  and  composed. 
He  was  an  elderly  man,  rather  stout  and  of  florid  aspect, 
with  a  large  expanse  of  bald  head.  He  had  long  been 
a  professor  in  the  St.  Petersburg  Military  Academy  and 
had  a  great  reputation  for  strategical  knowledge ;  but  this 
was  his  first  campaign  and  before  this  morning  he  had 
been  in  action  only  once  —  at  the  passage  of  the  Danube, 
where  his  dispositions  were  regarded  as  having  been  very 


io6  Czar  and  Sultan 

skilful.  The  two  surgeons  at  the  field-hospital  wanted 
to  amputate  the  wounded  leg  then  and  there.  But  Dra- 
gomiroff  refused  them  permission  to  their  great  disgust ; 
and  the  event  justified  him.  He  returned  to  the  army 
before  the  end  of  the  war,  in  possession  of  both  legs ;  but 
he  limped  badly  on  the  one  that  had  been  wounded,  and 
the  distortion,  he  feared,  would  be  permanent. 

Suleiman  was  no  doubt  aware  of  the  arrival  of  rein- 
forcements to  the  garrison  of  the  Schipka,  and  probably 
believed  that  more  were  coming.  In  the  meantime  he 
hurled  forward  a  number  of  battalions  on  the  errand  of 
attempting  the  conquest  of  the  St.  Nicholas  defences. 
Success  there  would  have  been  ruin  to  the  Russians ;  for 
the  St.  Nicholas  Hill  was  the  key  of  the  position.  The 
Turks  rushed  to  the  assault  with  extraordinary  dash 
and  enthusiasm.  As  they  came  on,  I  for  one,  I  well 
remember,  believed  that  it  was  all  over  with  us.  The 
lithe  rushing  swiftness  of  those  Turkish  warriors  was  at 
once  beautiful  and  terrible.  We  lay  and  watched  the 
issue  of  a  conflict  which  was  sure  to  be  desperate  — 
Villiers  the  indomitable  sketching  as  he  lay.  The  fore- 
most regiment  was  commanded  by  an  Englishman  who 
wore  a  Norfolk  jacket  and  cord  breeches.  That  of  itself, 
you  will  say,  did  not  make  him  an  Enghshman.  No ;  but 
you  could  have  had  no  doubt  on  the  subject  had  you 
heard  with  what  vigour  he  swore  in  our  vernacular.  We 
learned  later  that  he  was  not  an  Englishman  after  all,  but 
a  Scot  named  Campbell,  a  brave  soldier  of  fortune  who 
was  afterwards  killed  fighting  in  South  Africa.  At  the 
moment  I  thought  I  could  recognise  the  Highland  accent 
as  he  cheered  on  his  men  and  hurled  objurgations  on  the 


The  Crisis  of  the  Schipka  Pass  107 

Russians.  Straight  at  the  Russian  trenches  he  led  his 
ardent  Moslems,  who  carried  them  with  a  rush  at  the 
point  of  the  bayonet  and  then  mingled  with  the  Russian 
defenders  in  a  wild  affray  in  which  the  bayonet  and 
clubbed  rifles  were  the  only  weapons  used.  The  hand-to- 
hand  struggle  lasted  for  many  minutes ;  but  in  the  end  the 
steadfast  Russian  doggedness  held  its  own,  and  those  of 
the  Turks  who  had  survived  the  close  conflict  of  cold  steel 
were  heaved  back  over  the  parapet  by  dint  of  main 
strength.  We  went  into  the  interior  of  the  position  after 
the  Turks  had  retired.  They  had  been  in  it  for  no  great 
length  of  time,  but  the  place  was  like  a  shambles.  No 
quarter  had  been  asked  or  given  ;  and  when  the  Russians 
were  ordered  back  into  the  trenches  they  had  to  kneel  in 
actual  blood.  Campbell  was  among  the  few  survivors  of 
his  command :  the  mass  of  the  battalion  remained  in  the 
Russian  position,  but  no  longer  alive. 

There  was  no  respite.  Throughout  the  day  the  deep 
valley  separating  the  ridge  on  which  ran  the  road  from 
the  higher  wooded  ridge  of  the  Bald  Mountain  further  to 
the  right,  was  the  scene  of  constant  hard  fighting.  About 
noon  we  crept  up  to  the  edge  of  the  central  ridge,  and 
taking  off  our  white  caps,  looked  down  on  the  scene  below 
us.  The  Russian  riflemen  were  up  among  the  trees  of 
the  Turkish  mountain-face,  leaving  the  rocky  bottom  be- 
hind them  strewn  with  killed  and  wounded.  The  Russian 
stretcher-bearers  were  behaving  admirably,  picking  up  the 
wounded  under  the  hottest  fire ;  and  indeed  not  a  few  of 
them  were  themselves  among  the  wounded.  As  to  the 
progress  of  the  Russians  up  in  the  forest  little  could  be 
discerned,  so  thick  was  the  cover ;  but  the  evidences  were 


io8  Czar  and  Sultan 

that  the  fighting  waved  to  and  fro  —  now  the  Russians 
and  now  the  Turks  gaining  ground.  Occasionally  the 
Russians  at  some  point  would  be  hurled  back  out  of  the 
wood  altogether,  and  through  the  glass  we  could  mark 
the  Turks  following  them  eagerly  to  its  edge  and  lying 
down  there  while  pouring  out  a  galling  fire.  It  seemed 
a  very  even  thing :  the  Turks  and  Russians  were  alike 
full  of  fight  and  neither  gave  any  signs  of  succumbing. 
The  Russian  riflemen,  finely-trained  skirmishers,  were 
great  adepts  at  taking  cover,  and  the  Turks  skirmished  as 
dexterously  as  if  they  had  never  done  anything  else  from 
infancy ;  but  the  soldiers  of  the  Brianski  Regiment  of  the 
line  did  not  seem  to  know  how  to  escape  exposure.  They 
obviously  had  no  thought  of  quailing ;  but  they  stood  up 
in  the  open  somewhat  helplessly  and  accepted  punishment 
doggedly.     No  doubt  their  casualties  were  heavy. 

To  the  onlooker  there  is  something  exceptionally  terri- 
ble in  a  fight  in  a  wood.  One  can  see  nothing  save  an 
occasional  flash  among  the  dark  foliage  and  the  white 
clouds  of  smoke  rising  above  it  like  soap-bubbles.  Hoarse 
shouts  and  cries  come  back  to  one  from  out  the  mysteri- 
ous gloom.  How  was  it  to  go  .-*  Were  the  strong-backed 
Russians  with  those  ready  bayonets  of  theirs  to  end  the 
long-drawn-out  fight  with  one  short,  impetuous,  irresistible 
rush,  or  were  the  more  lissom  Turks  to  drive  their  clum- 
sier adversaries  out  of  the  wood  backward  into  the  fire- 
blistered  open  .''  Who  could  tell  '^.  The  struggle  went  on  ; 
the  clamour  of  it  still  rose  up  into  the  serene  blue  sky. 
Wounded  men  came  staggering  from  out  among  the 
swarthy  trunks  and  sat  down  in  a  heap  or  crawled  on 
towards  the  ambulance  men.     The  riflemen  and  Brianskis 


The  Crisis  of  the  Schipka  Pass  109 

were  not  progressing,  and  the  Turks  were  gaining  strength. 
"See,"  cried  Villicrs,  "yonder  on  the  sky-line  are  Turkish 
reinforcements  coming  along  their  ridge  towards  that  bare 
patch  close  to  their  mountain  battery  on  the  edge  of  their 
right  flank !  "  It  was  determined,  while  the  riflemen  and 
Brianskis  continued  to  fight  on  where  they  were,  to  push 
an  attack  across  the  neck  of  the  valley  on  the  Turkish 
batteries  on  the  "  Woody  Mountain."  Two  battalions  of 
the  Jitomer  Regiment  were  ordered  on  this  service.  They 
quitted  the  Russian  central  position,  and  marched  in  com- 
pany columns  across  the  comparatively  smooth  ground  at 
the  head  of  the  valley  close  to  the  summit  level  of  the 
range.  The  Turkish  mountain-guns  punished  them  heav- 
ily ;  and  as  they  went  on  they  suffered  severely  from 
the  hostile  Remington  rifles.  But  they  pushed  onward  to 
the  forest-edge  at  the  foot  of  the  ascent.  The  crisis  of  the 
day's  fighting  had  now  arrived.  For  us  as  spectators 
there  remained  nothing  but  to  gaze  into  the  perplexing 
mystery  of  forest.  There  were  some  evidences  that  the 
Russians  were  gaining  ground  as  well  on  right  as  on  left. 
The  Turkish  position  on  the  peak  of  the  "  Woody  Moun- 
tain "  was  assailed,  but  unsuccessfully ;  yet  Radetski  in 
the  final  result  had  gained  considerable  elbow-room  on 
both  his  flanks.  The  struggle  ceased  for  the  time  at 
sundown.  Villiers  went  to  the  general  and  asked  him 
whether  he  considered  that  on  the  day's  fighting  he  had 
bettered  his  position.  Radetski  was  oracular.  "  The 
Turks,"  said  he,  "  will  no  doubt  renew  their  attacks 
to-morrow  with  fresh  troops,  and  probably  do  so  for  a 
good  many  morrows.  But  I  am  a  tough  man,  and,"  he 
added,  "  with  God's  help,  I  shall  hold  on  here  till  I  am 


iio  Czar  and  Sultan 

ordered  away.  But  this  is  a  very  sad  night  for  me.  Poor 
Andreiovitch  went  out  with  the  Jitomers  when  they  ad- 
vanced to  the  attack,  and  word  has  just  been  sent  in  to 
me  that  he  is  missing.  He  was  last  seen  up  in  the  wood 
within  a  short  distance  of  the  enemy's  battery.  The  Jit- 
omers fell  back  several  hundred  yards  and  he  did  not 
come  back  with  them.  You  know  that  the  Turks  make 
no  prisoners,  and  you  know  also  what  they  do  to  our 
wounded.  I  count  the  poor  fellow  a  dead  man,  and  — 
and,"  said  the  old  warrior  as  the  tears  ran  down  his  face, 
"  I  had  come  to  love  him  as  a  son." 

Andreiovitch  had  spent  the  preceding  evening  with  us 
and,  because  we  were  both  MacGahan's  friends,  had  given 
us  his  confidence.  Before  he  had  left  Tirnova  with 
Gourko  he  and  the  pretty  Maritza,  the  widow's  daughter 
with  whom  it  seemed  he  had  fallen  in  love  at  first  sight, 
had  grown  mutually  tender.  When  he  came  back,  pro- 
moted and  covered  with  honour,  she  had  confessed  that 
her  heart  was  his  and  had  plighted  her  troth  to  the  hand- 
some hussar.  He  had  wanted,  he  told  us,  to  get  married 
then  and  there,  so  ardent  were  his  emotions ;  but  Maritza, 
though  in  love,  had  not  wholly  taken  leave  of  her  senses 
and  had  prevailed  on  him  to  wait  until  the  war  was  over. 
It  was  not  two  hours  ago,  when  the  Jitomers  went  out, 
that  we  had  shaken  hands  with  Andreiovitch,  as  with  a 
smile  in  bis  eye  and  a  cigarette  between  his  lips  he  lin- 
gered one  moment  to  give  us  a  message  in  case  he  should 
not  come  back.  And  now  he  had  -not  come  back  and  it 
was  almost  a  certainty  that  he  never  would  come  back. 

Villiers  had  determined  to  remain  on  the  Schipka  till 
something  decisive  should  occur.     But  he  had  an  envelope 


The  Crisis  of  the  Schipka  Pass  1 1 1 

full  of  sketches  for  which  the  Graphic  would  be  hungering, 
and  he  determined  to  send  me  down  with  them  to  Bucha- 
rest with  instructions  to  return  with  all  speed.  I  left  him 
in  the  twilight,  travelled  down  the  pass  to  Gabrova,  and 
from  thence  made  haste  through  the  darkness  on  my  way 
to  the  Danube.  All  my  thoughts  as  I  rode  were  about 
poor  Andreiovitch.  I  do  not  hesitate  to  tell  you  that  I 
fervently  hoped  our  poor  friend  had  been  shot  dead ;  for 
the  warfare  in  which  the  Russians  were  engaged  had  in  it 
a  feature  of  savagery  at  which  I  shuddered.  But  I  knew 
that  in  common  with  all  Russian  officers  at  the  front, 
Andreiovitch  carried  a  dagger  with  which  to  take  his  own 
life  in  case  of  finding  himself  too  severely  wounded  to  get 
away  and  left  without  chance  of  removal  by  the  Russian 
stretcher-bearers.  I  made  a  detour  into  Tirnova  on  the 
melancholy  errand  of  breaking  to  Maritza  the  sad  tidings 
regarding  her  betrothed.  Minutes  were  of  importance  to 
me,  and  I  left  the  poor  girl  in  a  dead  faint  in  her  mother's 
arms. 

From  a  stable-keeper  in  Tirnova  I  hired  a  fresh  horse, 
leaving  my  tired  pony  with  him ;  and  I  hurried  on  to  the 
Imperial  headquarters  at  Gorni-Studen,  which  place  was 
on  my  direct  road  to  the  Danube  at  Sistova.  It  was  an 
understood  thing  with  the  English  correspondents  during 
this  war,  that  whenever  they  had  seen  or  heard  of  any 
event  of  importance  and  were  within  reasonable  distance 
of  him,  they  should  report  to  Colonel  Frederick  Wellesley, 
the  British  military  attache  in  the  camp  of  the  Czar.  I 
was  not  a  correspondent,  but  I  was  the  messenger  of  cor- 
respondents; and  besides  Villiers'  instalment  of  sketches 
I  carried  his  hurriedly-written  notes  of  what  we  had  seen 


112  Czar  and  Sultan 


on  the  Schipka  Pass,  which  I  was  to  desire  Colonel  Welles- 
ley  to  read  before  I  should  carry  them  on  to  Bucharest  to 
be  sent  to  the  Graphic  by  telegraph.  Wellesley  lived  in  a 
tent  in  the  staff  officers'  square  on  the  slope  near  the  Em- 
peror's house.  He  read  the  notes,  looked  at  the  sketches, 
asked  of  me  a  good  many  questions,  gave  me  some  food, 
and  let  me  go.  I  was  remounting  when  General  Ignatieff 
came  round  the  corner.  He  knew  me  very  well  from 
having  seen  me  often  in  the  company  of  MacGahan  and 
Villiers;  and  he  called  out  in  his  "boat  ahoy!"  manner: 
"  Where  from  now,  Mr.  Carnegie  ?  "  "  From  the  Schipka 
Pass,  your  Excellency,"  I  replied  —  "!  left  there  at  dusk 
last  night." 

"The  deuce  you  did  !"  exclaimed  Ignatieff  excitedly. 
"  You  have  beaten  all  our  messengers  by  hours  :  you  must 
see  the  Emperor  and  tell  your  tidings  to  him  !  " 

Now,  as  you  know,  I  have  not  been  exactly  brought  up 
among  Emperors;  but  nevertheless  I  have  a  sense  of 
decency,  and  I  knew  that  a  man  ought  to  wait  on  an 
Emperor  in  his  Sunday  clothes.  I  was  not  a  man,  but  a 
mere  lad;  I  was  not  a  correspondent,  but  merely  the 
humble  friend  and  general-utility  assistant  of  correspond- 
ents and  artists.  I  hadn't  seen  any  Sunday  clothes,  or 
Sundays  either,  for  three  months;  and  I  was  conscious 
that  my  aspect  was  disreputable  in  the  extreme.  I  had 
been  wearing  clothes  originally  white  for  over  a  fortnight, 
night  and  day.  The  black  of  my  saddle  had  come  off  on 
to  them  with  great  liberality,  and  they  were  spotted  with 
the  blood  of  poor  wounded  Dragomiroff.  I  was  all  over 
about  half-an-inch  thick  with  dust,  and  the  dust  on  my 
face  was  relieved  by  fiery  sun-blisters.     I  had  not  washed 


The  Crisis  of  the  Schipka  Pass  1 1 3 

for  three  days,  for  on  the  Schipka  we  had  been  short  even 
of  drinking-water  ;  and  I  altogether  felt  a  most  degraded- 
looking  subject  of  that  great  empire  on  which  the  sun 
never  sets.  But  Ignatieff  insisted  that  the  Emperor  in 
the  circumstances  would  by  no  means  stand  upon  cere- 
mony. He  went  in  and  awakened  his  Imperial  master, 
who  had  been  asleep ;  and  he  presently  ushered  me 
through  the  Cossack  Guard  into  the  dingy  alcove  which 
seemed  to  be  the  Emperor's  receiving-room.  His  quarters 
were  in  a  battered  Turkish  house,  the  balcony  of  which, 
where  I  was  to  be  presented  to  his  Majesty,  was  enclosed 
with  common  canvas  hangings.  There  was  not  even  a 
carpet  on  the  rugged  boards.  A  glimpse  into  the  bed- 
room from  which  the  Emperor  came  showed  me  a  tiny 
cabin  with  mud  walls  and  a  little  camp-bed  standing  on  a 
mud  floor.  His  Majesty,  who  was  quite  alone,  received 
me  with  great  kindness,  shaking  hands  and  paying  me  a 
compliment  on  my  speed  as  a  courier,  which  I  told  him 
was  my  present  avocation.  He  was  gaunt,  worn,  and 
haggard,  his  head  sunk  between  his  shoulders,  his  voice 
broken  by  nervousness  and  by  the  asthma  that  afflicted 
him.  In  the  following  summer  I  saw  his  Majesty  at  a 
great  State  function  in  his  capital  —  a  very  Emperor, 
upright  of  figure,  dignified  in  every  movement  and  gesture, 
arrayed  in  a  gorgeous  uniform  and  covered  with  decora- 
tions. A  glittering  Court  and  suite  thronged  around  the 
stately  man  with  devoted  and  respectful  homage.  The 
dazzling  splendour  of  the  Winter  Palace  was  the  setting 
of  the  sumptuous  picture ;  and  as  I  gazed  on  the  magnifi- 
cent scene,  I  could  hardly  realise  that  the  central  figure  of 
it  in  the  pomp  of  his  Imperial  state,  was  of  a  verity  the 


114  Czar  and  Sultan 

self-same  man  in  whose  presence  I  had  stood  in  the  squalid 
Bulgarian  hovel  —  the  same"  worn,  anxious,  shabby,  wist- 
ful man  who,  with  spasmodic  utterance  and  the  expression 
in  his  eyes  of  a  hunted  deer,  had  asked  of  me  breathless 
questions  as  to  the  occurrences  and  issue  of  the  fighting. 

I  told  him  that  I  could  make  him  understand  these 
much  better  if  I  had  a  sheet  of  paper  on  which  to  draw 
a  rough  sketch  of  the  ground.  It  seemed  that  there  was 
no  map  of  the  Schipka  Pass  in  the  Imperial  headquarters. 
He  said  at  once :  "  Ignatieff,  go  and  fetch  paper  and 
pencil."  Ignatieff  went,  and  the  Emperor  and  myself 
were  alone  together,  standing  opposite  each  other  with  a 
little  green-baize  table  dividing  us.  He  was  so  good  as  to 
ask  me  a  few  questions  about  myself,  remarking  that  I 
was  very  young  to  be  a  witness  of  scenes  of  bloodshed 
and  death.  He  asked  very  earnestly  about  General 
Dragomiroff ;  and  when  I  told  him  that  Mr.  Villiers  and 
myself  had  been  with  him  when  he  fell  and  had  applied 
the  first  bandaging  to  his  shattered  knee,  he  was  much 
moved  and  again  shook  me  by  the  hand.  I  asked  him  to 
permit  me  to  read  Mr.  Villiers'  notes  taken  during  the 
fighting,  adding  that  it  would  be  better  that  I  should  do 
so  when  I  had  sketched  the  ground  with  which  they  were 
concerned.  Ignatieff  returned  with  a  sheet  of  foolscap, 
I  was  but  a  poor  draughtsman,  and  my  chart,  I  am  sure, 
was  very  rough  and  crude.  Then  I  read  the  notes,  point- 
ing as  I  did  so  to  each  position  as  they  referred  to  it,  and 
where  they  seemed  obscure,  adding  some  explanations 
from  my  own  recollection.  The  Emperor  was  not  only 
very  patient,  but  gave  me  the  conviction  that  he  was 
deeply  interested  in  my  poor  and  disconnected  narrative. 


The  Crisis  of  the  Schipka  Pass  1 1 5 


He  was  again  much  moved  when  I  spoke  of  the  conduct  of 
his  troops  —  when  I  said  that  I  could  not  have  beUeved,  had 
I  not  seen  it,  that  men  could  have  endured  so  much  and 
dared  so  much.  He  wanted  to  know  about  the  losses.  Of 
them  I  could  tell  him  merely  that  to  me  they  seemed  awful ; 
that  in  places  the  dead  lay  in  heaps ;  that  Generals  Daro- 
zhinsky  and  Petroceni  were  killed,  with  many  other  officers  ; 
and  that  the  wounded  suffered  beyond  conception.  When 
I  spoke  of  the  dead  he  crossed  himself  fervently  over  and 
over  again,  and  went  into  his  bedroom  for  a  few  moments, 
beckoning  that  I  should  wait.  When  he  came  out  again, 
it  flashed  across  me  to  repeat  to  him  the  encouraging 
words  which  General  Radetski  had  spoken  to  Mr.  Villiers 
before  the  latter  had  sent  me  away.  His  face  cleared, 
and  he  said  in  a  low  voice  :  "  Brave  old  Radetski!  "  and 
then  he  repeated  the  old  warrior's  words  —  "  Please  God, 
I  shall  hold  on  until  I  am  ordered  away."  He  was  so 
good  as  to  ask  who  was  Mr.  Villiers  of  whom  I  had  occa- 
sion to  speak,  and  bade  me  say  to  that  gentleman  that  he 
would  be  glad  to  receive  him  when  next  in  his  camp. 
Then  he  thanked  me  for  my  information,  hoped  that  all 
would  turn  out  well,  did  me  the  honour  to  present  me  with 
the  Order  of  St.  Stanislaus  with  the  crossed  swords,  and 
desired  that  I  should  go  with  General  Ignatieff  to  the 
camp  of  his  brother  the  Commander-in-Chief  on  the  top 
of  the  opposite  hill.  As  I  bowed  on  retiring  he  again 
shook  my  hand,  and  said  he  was  much  obliged  to  me. 

Ignatieff  conducted  me  through  the  mud  up  to  the 
headquarters  of  the  Grand  Duke  Nicholas.  He  and  his 
staff  lived  in  tents ;  not,  however,  the  usual  canvas  tents, 
but  in  Turcoman   kibitkas   of    thick  felt   stretched   on    a 


ii6  Czar  and  S^tltaii 

framework  of  laths.  The  Grand  Duke  was  bluff,  noisy 
and  rather  abrupt.  I  simply  said  that  the  Emperor  had 
desired  me  to  read  to  him  Mr.  Villiers'  notes,  which  I  did. 
He  seemed  impatient  while  I  did  so.  He  appeared  con- 
cerned when  I  told  him  that  Generals  Darozhinsky  and 
Petroceni  had  been  killed  ;  and  he  remarked :  "  I  hope 
old  Radetski  won't  get  himself  killed !  "  —  not  in  a  very 
feeling  manner.  He  asked  me  what  seemed  the  tone  "  up 
yonder."  I  thought  the  best  way  to  answer  him  was  to 
repeat  what  I  had  heard  General  Radetski  say  to  Mr. 
Villiers  before  I  left.  "  Ah,"  he  exclaimed,  slapping  his 
thigh,  "  that  is  the  right  tone  !  I  hope  to  God  he  will  be 
as  good  as  his  word !  "  Then  he  asked  me  whether  I 
could  tell  him  what  was  the  feeling  as  to  reinforcements. 
It  was  not  likely  that  a  person  in  my  circumstances  could 
inform  him  on  that  point ;  I  simply  stated  that  I  had 
heard  Colonel  Duhonin  say  that  the  Schipka  could  never 
be  safe  unless  a  whole  army  corps  was  allotted  for  its  de- 
fence. He  spat  on  the  floor  angrily,  and  then,  swallow- 
ing a  great  glass  of  wine,  exclaimed  :  "  An  army  corps  ! 
What  is  the  use  of  talking  about  an  army  corps  when  I 
don't  know  where  to  find  so  much  as  a  spare  battal- 
ion.?  "  He  dismissed  me  curtly  enough,  I  thought,  since 
it  was  to  oblige  him,  not  myself,  that  I  had  gone  to  him, 
and  since  the  visit  was  delaying  my  journey.  As  I 
left  the  kibitka  Prince  Alexander  of  Battenberg  said 
to  me  in  very  kind  tones :  "  Mr.  Carnegie,  I  am  sure  that 
after  your  long  ride  you  must  be  very  tired.  I  have 
taken  the  liberty  of  sending  your  horse  over  to  Colonel 
Wellesley's  groom,  who  will  take  charge  of  it  until  you 
return ;  and  my  carriage  is  outside,  waiting  to  take  you 


The  Crisis  of  the  Schipka  Pass  1 1 7 

down  to  the  Danube."  There  spoke  the  true  and  courte- 
ous gentleman  !  I  felt  beholden  to  him  for  a  most  kindly 
and  thoughtful  service,  and  accepted  it  thankfully.  The 
vehicle  was  a  "  troika  "  —  a  light  open  carriage  drawn  by 
three  black  stallions  abreast ;  the  centre  horse,  taller  than 
the  other  two  and  more  powerful,  was  a  fast  trotter ;  the  two 
side  horses  went  at  a  gallop  with  their  heads  fastened  down 
and  bent  outward  by  a  rein.  The  driver  was  an  imposing 
person,  in  fur  bonnet  encircled  by  peacock  feathers,  long 
blue  caftan  and  flaring  red  sash.  He  used  no  whip,  held 
the  reins  tight  in  both  hands  with  squared  elbows,  and 
carried  me  along  at  the  rate  of  10  miles  an  hour.  The 
superb  coachman  accepted  with  condescension  my  humble 
baksheesh.  I  hurried  across  the  Danube,  travelled  athwart 
the  plain  to  Giurgevo,  caught  the  train  for  Bucharest,  and 
Mr.  Villiers'  sketches  were  in  the  post-office  and  his  notes 
on  the  wires  within  twenty  minutes  after  my  arrival. 

I  took  the  liberty  of  sleeping  for  once  in  the  course  of 
some  six  weeks  in  a  comfortable  bed  with  actual  sheets ; 
but  on  the  morning  of  the  27th  I  was  on  my  way  back  to 
the  Schipka.  At  Gorni-Studen  I  picked  up  my  hired 
horse,  rode  him  to  Tirnova,  returned  him  to  his  owner,  and 
received  my  own  pony.  I  found  no  Maritza  in  her 
mother's  house.  The  latter  told  me  sadly  that  on  the 
morning  after  my  previous  visit  she  had  started  for  the 
Schipka,  refusing  the  mother's  *<^mpanionship  because  of 
the  sure  absence  of  such  comforts  as  those  to  which  the 
old  lady  was  accustomed.  Reaching  the  Schipka,  I  found 
Villiers  drinking  tea  with  Radetski  in  a  leafy  wigwam  on 
the  Central  Hill.  The  fighting  had  ceased  on  the  evening 
of  the  26th  and  both  sides  were  now  standing  on  the  defen- 


ii8  Czar  and  Sultan 

sive,  although  the  Turks  maintained  their  positions  on  the 
two  commanding  spurs  and  picked  off  the  passing  Rus- 
sians on  the  high  road  to  the  number  of  forty  or  fifty  a 
day.  Indeed,  when  I  found  Radetski  and  Villiers  they 
were  drinking  their  tea  under  a  dropping  fire,  which  they 
did  not  seem  to  mind.  After  five  days  of  almost  uninter- 
rupted fighting  both  sides  were  very  much  as  they  had 
been  at  the  beginning,  but  for  the  slaughter  ;  the  Russians 
had  lost  about  4,000  men.  The  Turks  were  said  to  have 
had  over  8,000  wounded  and  about  3,500  killed.  Dur- 
ing the  first  three  days  the  garrison  had  suffered  intensely. 
Their  only  food  consisted  of  a  single  day's  biscuit  ration  in 
their  haversacks  at  the  beginning.  The  heat  was  cruel, 
radiated  as  it  was  from  the  rock  ;  but  there  was  no  water 
nearer  than  three  miles  away,  and  all  that  could  be  had 
was  that  brought  back  in  their  canteens  by  the  stretcher- 
bearers  returning  from  the  field-hospital.  The  fighting  was 
maintained  day  and  night,  for  the  moon  was  at  its  full  ;•  the 
poor  fellows  caught  mere  snatches  of  sleep  as  they  lay  on 
the  ground  they  were  holding.  They  were  always  under 
fire  —  not  merely  during  assaults  ;  for  the  Turks  with  one 
trifling  exception  commanded  every  point  of  the  Russian 
position  ;  and  even  in  a  spot  supposed  to  be  in  some  degree 
safe  General  Darozhinsky  was  shot  dead.  The  whole 
region  was  abominable  because  of  the  stench  of  decompos- 
ing bodies,  and  the  sight  of  their  dead  comrades  sickened 
the  living. 

Villiers  was  quite  ready  to  make  his  farewell  to  the 
Schipka  and  it  was  settled  that  we  should  depart  on  the 
morning  of  the  29th.  Most  of  the  wounded  had  been 
sent  down  to  Gabrova;  but  I  found  in  the  stone  hut  which 


The  Crisis  of  the  Schipka  Pass  1 1 9 

had  been  the  field-hospital  poor  Maritza  attending  two 
soldiers  so  mangled  that  they  could  not  be  moved.  She 
had  in  her  possession  her  lover's  uniform,  all  torn  and 
soiled  with  blood  and  clay.  The  sorry  fragments  had  been 
found  in  a  little  hollow  somewhat  wide  of  the  line  of  attack 
and  retreat,  and  there  lay  beside  them  a  naked  corpse 
whose  state  was  such,  after  three  days'  exposure  to  sun 
and  weather,  that  no  identification  was  possible.  Maritza 
steadily  refused  to  believe  that  this  body  was  that  of 
Andreiovitch,  but  she  was  alone  in  her  convictions ;  and, 
indeed,  the  name  of  "  Major  Michael  Andreiovitch  of  the 
9th  Hussars,"  had  been  included  among  the  "  killed  "  in 
the  supplement  to  General  Radetski's  despatch.  I  tried 
in  vain  to  persuade  Maritza  to  return  with  us  to  her 
mother.  Her  pretext  for  refusal  was  her  duty  to  the  poor 
broken  fellows  whom  she  was  nursing ;  but  it  was  not 
difficult  to  perceive  that  she  still  hoped  against  hope  that 
her  lover  might  yet  be  restored  to  her.  The  Gabrova 
woman  who  was  sharing  the  nursing  duty  promised  faith- 
fully that  as  soon  as  the  two  wounded  men  were  dead  — 
they  were  beyond  recovery  —  she  herself  would  accom- 
pany Maritza  down  to  Tirnova,  and  would  not  leave  her 
until  she  was  in  her  mother's  arms.  So  I  bade  a  sad 
farewell  to  the  poor  wan-faced  girl,  so  changed  since  the 
still  recent  days  of  coquetry ;  and  Villiers  and  I  departed 
to  another  section  of  the  theatre  of  war,  where  amidst 
the  carnage  of  Plevna  I  did  not  lose  the  memory  of  the 
tragedy  now  associated  in  my  mind  with  the  once  gay  and 
laughing  Maritza. 

I  must  finish  her  story  here  now  —  it  does  not  end  in  a 
tragedy  after  all.     It  was  in  the  Podo  Mogosoi  of  Bucha- 


I20  Czar  and  Sultan 

rest  in  the  following  April,  that  to  my  unutterable  surprise 
I  met  Maritza  walking  arm-in-arm  with  Andreiovitch,  he 
in  civilian  dress  and  walking  very  lame  with  the  support 
of  a  stick.  "  Yes,"  said  Maritza,  all  her  archness  restored  ; 
"  this  fellow  one  morning  in  the  end  of  January  coolly 
sauntered  into  our  house  in  Tirnova,  limping  on  crutch 
and  staff  and  with  one  leg  supported  by  a  strap  round 
his  neck,  condescended  to  kiss  me,  and  then  sat  down 
and  demanded  vodka.  Since  then,  I  may  inform  you, 
I  have  amused  myself  by  marrying  him.  I've  told  you 
all  that  is  important ;  he  must  give  himself  the  trouble 
of  recounting  the  minor  details."  We  went  into  Brofft's 
restaurant  and  then  Andreiovitch  told  his  strange  story, 
which  I  believe  I  can  give  you  almost  in  his  own  words :  — 
"  During  our  attack  on  the  '  Woody  Mountain,'  a  Turk 
and  I  were  at  close  quarters  when  a  bullet  shattered  the 
bone  of  my  leg  and  I  rolled  aside  into  a  hollow,  dragging 
along  with  me  the  Turk  whom  I  killed  with  my  dagger. 
Averting  faintness  by  resorting  to  my  flask  I  first  ban- 
daged my  leg,  and  hoping  to  escape  the  fate  which  so 
many  of  our  poor  fellows  underwent,  I  tore  off  my  uni- 
form, stripped  the  dead  Turk,  and  contrived  to  work  my- 
self into  his  garments.  All  night  I  lay  there  uninterfered 
with,  but  suffering  great  agony.  Early  on  the  following 
morning  there  passed  close  to  me  going  towards  the  front, 
a  tall  man  dressed  partly  in  the  uniform  of  a  Turkish 
officer.  I  was  about  to  risk  it  and  call  to  him,  when  he 
tripped  over  a  root  and  as  he  recovered  himself  I  heard 

him  distinctly  mutter  '  D n ! '     That  satisfied  mc    he 

was  an    Englishman  and   I  addressed  him  in    your   lan- 
guage.    He   was    most   kind.     His   name  was   Campbell 


The  Crisis  of  the  Schipka  Pass  121 

and  he  commanded  a  battalion  in  Suleiman's  army.  He 
got  a  stretcher  on  which  I  was  placed,  Campbell's  Turks 
who  carried  me  believing  that  I  was  a  wounded  country- 
man too  ill  to  speak.  Campbell  accompanied  me  down  into 
Schipka  village,  where  he  handed  me  over  to  the  care  of 
the  British  surgeons  of  the  Red  Cross.  They  treated  me 
with  the  greatest  skill  and  care,  but  months  passed  and 
I  was  still  on  my  back.  Suleiman  marched  westward 
about  the  new  year,  leaving  Vessil  Pasha  at  and  about 
Schipka  with  some  40,000  men.  You  must  have  heard 
how  Radetski,  Mirski,  and  Skobeleff  came  wallowing 
through  the  snow  ten  feet  deep  on  the  Balkans  in  January 
last ;  and  how  Skobeleff,  after  a  desperate  struggle  for  the 
possession  of  the  Shenova  redoubts,  received  the  surrender 
of  Vessil  and  his  whole  army.  That  evening  I  ceased  to 
be  a  wounded  Turk  and  became  a  lame  Russian  —  good 
for  no  more  soldiering,  worse  luck.  When  the  track  got 
beaten  over  the  pass,  I  found  a  Turkish  pony  on  which 
I  rode  to  Gabrova  and  thence  down  the  valley  to  Tirnova. 
I  may  incidentally  remark  that  Maritza  didn't  in  the  least 
expect  to  see  me  any  more.  But  one  fine  morning  she 
went  to  church  with  me  all  the  same,  and  came  out 
Madame  Andreiovitch ;  and  now  we  are  on  our  way  to 
Russia  by  short  stages,  when  I  shall  be  compelled  to 
make  things  excessively  unpleasant  to  my  respected  father 
if  he  does  not  behave  handsomely  to  us." 

So,  lads,  that  is  the  true  and  eventful  story  of  the  pretty 
Maritza  of  Tirnova  and  her  true  lover,  the  once  rackety 
Andreiovitch.  They  sometimes  write  to  me  to  this  day, 
and  they  jointly  testify  that  they  are  very  happy. 


CHAPTER   VII 


PELISCHAT    AND    LOFTCHA 


IT  was  quite  a  relief  to  leave  behind  us  the  tainted 
atmosphere  and  the  squalor  of  the  Schipka  Pass.  Mr. 
Villiers  had  not  eaten  a  decent  meal  for  more  than  a 
week ;  he  had  never  taken  his  clothes  off,  and  water  was 
so  scarce  on  the  Schipka  that  he  had  been  able  only  twice 
to  wash  his  hands  and  face  and  then  only  in  the  driblet  of 
water  which  a  soldier's  canteen  held.  I  had  brought  up 
for  him  from  Bucharest  a  change  of  clothes  and  some 
clean  linen  which  I  had  left  in  the  inn  at  Gabrova.  We 
bathed  in  a  pool  in  the  Jantra,  he  got  into  clean  garments, 
and  then  we  sat  down  to  a  meal  which,  although  plain  and 
served  roughly  enough,  was  at  least  clean  and  wholesome. 
He  had  lost  touch  of  the  course  of  events  during  the 
week  spent  up  among  the  bullets  and  rocks  of  the  Schipka, 
and  he  was  now  desirous  of  visiting  the  Imperial  head- 
quarters at  Gorni-Studcn,  in  order  that  he  might  see 
Colonel  Wellesley  and  learn  from  him  what  were  the  state 
and  prospects  of  the  campaign.  But  we  knew  the  road 
to  Gorni-Studen  from  Gabrova  by  way  of  Drenova  and 
Tirnova  so  well,  that  he  determined  to  make  a  detour 
from  Gabrova  to  the  south-westward  about  Selvi,  a  region 
which  he  had  not  previously  visited.  Our  route  was 
through  a  very  picturesque  country  which  had  not  been  in 


Pelischat  and  Loftcha  123 

the  least  devastated  by  war.  The  inhabitants,  Bulgarians 
though  they  were,  had  nothing  of  the  sullen  stolidity  char- 
acterising the  race  in  other  districts.  Their  houses  were 
comparatively  clean  and  the  same  could  be  said  of  their 
persons ;  they  were  clearly  excellent  farmers  and  they 
resembled  the  patriarchs  of  old  in  the  abundance  of  their 
flocks  and  herds.  We  had  heard  at  Gabrova  that  the 
Bashi-Bazouks  had  been  in  Selvi,  and  we  knew  too  well 
what  was  likely  to  be  the  aspect  of  any  place  which  had 
been  visited  by  those  ruffians.  But  it  turned  out  that  no 
Bashi-Bazouks  had  been  in  Selvi ;  there  was  a  Russian 
brigade  in  occupation,  or  rather  it  was  encamped  beyond 
its  outskirts.  The  village  was  by  far  the  brightest  and 
most  smiling  little  place  we  had  found  south  of  the  Danube. 
It  contained  many  good  houses  the  interiors  and  exteriors 
of  which  were  clean  and  picturesque.  There  were  flowers 
everywhere  in  the  village  gardens,  vines  and  blossoming 
creepers  covered  the  fronts  of  the  pretty  dwellings,  there 
were  busy  little  shops  thronged  with  customers,  and  there 
was  a  really  good  little  inn  the  landlord  of  which  knew 
how  to  cook.  So  charming  was  Selvi  that  we  should  have 
been  glad  to  spend  a  day  or  two  among  its  amenities,  but 
for  Villiers'  anxiety  to  gain  intelligence.  We  slept  in 
great  comfort  at  the  little  Selvi  hostelry  and  next  morning 
took  the  road  leading  to  Gorni-Studen.  On  the  way, 
shortly  before  reaching  that  place,  we  passed  two  separate 
brigades  marching  on  Selvi.  The  soldiers  were  fine  strap- 
ping young  fellows,  and  their  clothes  showed  little  of  the 
wear  and  tear  which  by  this  time  was  apparent  in  the 
troops  of  the  original  invasion.  Villiers,  entering  into  con- 
versation with  some  of    the  officers,  was    told    that  both 


124  Czar  and  Sultan 

brigades  belonged  to  the  reinforcements  which  had  been 
ordered  up  from  Russia,  and  that  they  had  crossed  the 
Danube  only  a  few  days  previously.  The  line  brigade 
was  the  2nd  of  the  3rd  Division,  and  the  rifle  brigade  was 
the  3rd.  The  officers  were  very  anxious  that  a  battle 
should  occur  soon  in  which  they  might  hope  to  take  part, 
and  they  were  greatly  disgusted  when  we  told  them  that 
at  Selvi  there  were  no  symptoms  of  imminent  fighting. 

Colonel  Wellesley,  as  always,  was  most  kind  and  pleas- 
ant. He  took  copious  notes  of  all  that  Villiers  had  to  tell 
him  about  the  Schipka  Pass ;  and  then  he  explained  how 
things  stood  at  the  headquarters  and  elsewhere.  The 
Russians  were  making  great  preparations  for  the  third 
and,  as  they  hoped,  the  final  effort  to  drive  Osman  and  his 
Turks  out  of  Plevna  and  Loftcha  —  this  latter  place  was 
to  be  first  attacked.  Of  the  reinforcements  from  Russia 
two  complete  divisions  had  arrived.  The  Roumanian 
army  had  been  crossing  the  Danube  during  the  whole  of 
the  month,  and  was  now  in  Bulgaria  in  its  full  strength  of 
30,000  infantry,  4,500  cavalry  and  126  guns.  It  consisted 
in  all  of  three  divisions,  one  of  which  was  the  reserve. 
Colonel  Wellesley  had  visited  the  Roumanians  and  thought 
well  of  them  ;  but  he  had  found  that  in  each  brigade  there 
was  but  one  line  regiment,  the  other  two  consisting  of 
militia  or,  as  they  were  called,  Dorobanz.  I  knew  some- 
thing of  the  Dorobanz ;  they  were  simply  peasants  clad  in 
sheepskins  instead  of  uniform  and  wearing  sandals  instead 
of  shoes.  But  they  were  stout  active  fellows  who  could 
march  all  day  and  then  dance  all  night.  Colonel  Welles- 
ley spoke  highly  of  the  Roumanian  artillery ;  the  weak 
point,  he  thought,  was  in  the  officers,  who,  accustomed  to 


Pelischal  and  Loftcha  125 

a  life  of  idleness  and  dissipation  and  destitute  of  confidence 
in  themselves,  might  default  in  constancy  if  the  fighting 
should  be  prolonged. 

Villiers  asked  the  colonel  about  poor  old  General  Pou- 
zanoff.  This  officer,  one  of  the  richest  noblemen  in 
Russia,  had  held  the  command  of  the  30th  Division, 
which  took  part  in  the  battle  before  Plevna  of  July  30th. 
Before  the  fighting  began  he  disappeared  altogether  and 
was  seen  no  more  until  the  morning  after,  when  he  was 
found  at  Poradim  in  great  distress  of  mind.  Of  course 
he  incurred  much  obloquy  and  was  freely  denounced  as 
a  coward.  We  remembered  his  coming  into  our  tent 
on  the  afternoon  before  the  battle,  and  that,  having  in- 
troduced himself,  he  had  spoken  in  a  very  soldier-like 
manner  of  the  impending  battle.  His  last  remark  as  he 
left  us  was  still  in  my  memory :  "  I  hope  God  will  give  us 
all  strength  to  do  our  duty  as  becomes  Russian  soldiers." 
He  was  an  old  man,  this  was  his  first  campaign,  and  we 
heard  later  that  both  his  brigades  had  been  taken  out 
of  his  hands,  that  he  then  quite  lost  his  head  and  hur- 
riedly quitted  the  field.  Colonel  Wellesley  told  us  of  a 
fine  trait  in  the  not  very  amiable  character  of  the  Grand 
Duke  Nicholas,  in  sending  the  poor  broken  old  man  away 
with  a  fine  mixture  of  arbitrary  assumption  of  profound 
medical  knowledge  and  of  genuine  kindly  feeling  for  a 
man  in  misfortune.  "  I  observe,  general,"  said  he,  "  that 
you  are. very  ill,  and  I  am  sure  that  there  is  no  chance 
of  your  recovering  your  health  without  returning  to  Rus- 
sia." "  But,"  remonstrated  the  general,  "  I  am  not  ill  at 
all,  your  Imperial  Highness.  I  was  never  in  better  health 
in  my  life."     "Allow  me,  please,  to  know  better.     I  can 


126  Czar  and  Sultan 

see  that  you  are  ailing  seriously,  and  I  must  recommend 
you  to  recover  your  health  in  the  bosom  of  your  family." 
On  August  31st  we  rode  in  pouring  rain  from  Gorni- 
Studen  to  Poradim,  a  village  of  which  our  recollections 
were  the  reverse  of  pleasant,  but  where,  as  Colonel 
Wellesley  had  informed  us,  were  the  headquarters  of 
the  army  gathering  for  the  third  attempt  on  Plevna.  As 
we  rode  past  one  of  the  half-subterranean  dwellings 
of  which  the  straggling  village  of  Poradim  consisted, 
we  heard  a  sound  which  struck  us  as  familiar.  It  was 
a  voice  uplifted  in  comic  song,  and  the  voice  was  the 
voice  of  MacGahan.  We  shouted,  there  was  a  rush  upon 
us  of  ferocious  Bulgarian  dogs,  and  then  appeared  Mac- 
Gahan in  a  red  silk  shirt,  riding-breeches,  and  brown 
boots.  Glad  to  be  out  of  the  rain  and  yet  more  glad  to 
meet  the  genial  American,  we  followed  him  inside.  We 
found  ourselves  in  a  regular  nest  of  correspondents.  In 
this  underground  hole,  besides  MacGahan,  were  Mr.  Jack- 
son of  the  New  York  Herald,  Mr.  Frederick  Boyle  of  the 
Standard,  and  Mr.  Dobson  who  was  MacGahan's  com- 
panion ;  all  waiting  with  more  or  less  impatience  until 
the  fighting  should  begin.  Some  of  the  gentlemen  had 
been  here  for  a  fortnight.  The  filth  and  squalor  of  the 
place  were  abominable.  It  was  overrun  with  mangy 
dogs  and  dirty  children.  The  hovel  was  entered  by  a 
damp  and  slippery  descent,  at  foot  of  which  one  entered 
the  low-roofed  mud-walled  principal  room  which,  the  cor- 
respondents occupied.  There  was  no  chimney ;  a  hole 
in  the  roof  let  out  the  smoke  and  let  in  the  sparse  modi- 
cum of  light.  The  only  furniture  was  a  Turkish  table 
and    a   water-jug.     The    cooking   utensils,   such    as   they 


Pelischat  and  Loftcha  127 


were,  belonged  to  the  gentlemen ;  the  Bulgarian  outfit 
consisted  of  two  earthenware  plates,  two  huge  wooden 
spoons,  and  a  dirty  iron  pot.  The  dull  saturnine  Bulga- 
rian peasant  would  sell  nothing  ;  he  steadfastly  refused 
to  deal  although  money  to  triple  the  value  was  laid  down 
before  him.  No  !  what  was  wanted  —  and  he  had  plenty 
of  hay  and  corn,  of  cattle,  sheep,  and  poultry  —  had  to 
be  taken  without  his  consent,  and  then  he  churlishly 
pouched  the  money. 

The  place  was  already  full  enough,  but  Villiers  and 
myself  were  taken  in  and  treated  hospitably.  We  came 
empty-handed  on  horseback ;  MacGahan  had  lost  his 
waggon  and  servants  as  usual,  but  Mr.  Boyle  travelled 
luxuriously.  His  waggon  contained  considerable  creature- 
comforts,  and  his  man  "  King,"  who  called  himself  "  a 
Yorkshire  Turk  "  and  who  spoke  all  languages  equally 
badly,  looked  after  the  proviant  and  did  the  cooking. 
The  day  we  arrived  was  turkey-day.  King  is  on  the 
alert.  Seizing  the  moment  he  catches  a  turkey  - —  to  the 
fury  of  the  owner,  who  subsides  on  the  instant  when  he 
sees  the  bird  is  headless,  and  placidly  accepts  a  franc. 
This  formula  of  giving  refusal,  I  find,  is  a  regular  thing, 
is  gone  through  every  day,  and  has  come  to  be  accepted 
as  a  matter  of  course.  King  skewers  the  bird  with  a 
stick  and  puts  it  on  the  fire,  legs  all  abroad  and  feathers 
frizzling.  There  is  a  sutler  over  the  way  who  sells 
bacon  in  slices  and  a  concoction  which  he  calls  wine  for 
which  he  charges  famine  prices.  The  dessert  habitually 
consists  of  a  roly-poly  pudding  in  which  Crosse  and 
Blackwell's  jam  is  a  luscious  ingredient  and  earns  for 
Boyle    the    donor    a    store    of    blessings.     Then    follows 


I  28  Czar  and  Sitltaii 

unlimited  tea,  for  some  one  has  a  samovar,  and  it  is  drunk 
out  of  glasses  with  a  modicum  of  sugar  held  in  the  mouth, 
but,  alas,  there  is  no  lemon. 

Skobeleff,  returning  from  a  visit  to  the  Trojan  Pass  and 
from  a  series  of  reconnaissances  against  Loftcha,  came  in 
to  dinner,  full  of  energy  and  frankness  as  usual.  He  was 
followed  by  two  of  his  Caucasians  carrying  a  bucket  of 
soup,  the  general's  contribution  to  our  meal.  The  soup 
was  that  on  which,  with  his  black  bread,  the  Russian 
soldier  chiefly  lives,  whether  in  the  field  or  in  barracks. 
I  have  often  tried  to  analyse  it,  but  never  with  success. 
Mr.  Boyle  went  into  the  question  closely,  and  this  was 
his  report :  "  Its  essence  is  all  sorts  of  meat,  its  accidents 
cabbage,  pumpkin,  onions  when  they  can  be  foraged,  and 
in  a  general  way  everything  that  the  company  can  pick 
up.  Grapes  are  much  esteemed,  crab  apples  and  wild 
pears  have  their  value,  maize  is  rightly  held  to  be  a  most 
desirable  ingredient.  If,  in  looking  for  these,  a  soldier 
finds  anything  whatever  that  may  strike  his  fancy,  he 
pops  it  into  the  soup  —  say,  a  weasel,  a  bunch  of  love- 
apples,  a  crow,  a  chile,  or  a  melon.  The  compound  is 
not  nice,  but  many  a  time  have  we  paid  the  company 
cook  a  rouble  for  a  portion." 

On  the  morning  of  the  previous  day  (August  30th)  the 
Turks  from  Plevna  had  made  a  furious  attack  on  the 
Russian  position  in  front  of  Poradim,  and  the  battle, 
although  it  did  not  last  long,  was  one  of  the  most  hardly 
fought  combats  of  the  war.  Lame  as  he  was,  MacGahan 
had  been  a  witness  of  the  fierce  and  stubborn  struggle ; 
and  after  dinner,  as  we  sat  or  lay  drinking  tea,  he  gave 
an  account  of  what  he  had  seen  to  General  Skobeleff.     I 


Pelischat  and  Loftcha  129 

listened,  as  you  may  imagine,  with  the  greatest  interest 
and  attention,  and  the  same  night  wrote  out  my  recollec- 
tions of  what  I  had  heard  not  two  hours  before.  This  is 
what  MacGahan  had  to  tell :  — 

"  We  first  heard  the  sound  of  distant  cannonading  about 
half-past  six  in  the  morning,  and  most  people  thought  the 
demonstration  —  for  it  was  regarded  as  nothing  more  — 
was  against  the  Roumanians  on  the  right  flank.  No  re- 
ports came  in,  and  becoming  impatient,  I  mounted  and 
rode  to  the  front,  three  miles  distant,  where  was  the  left 
flank  of  the  entrenched  position  facing  Plevna  on  the  east 
and  north.  As  I  rode  towards  Pelischat  I  met  great 
crowds  of  Bulgarian  refugees  fleeing  from  the  vicinity  of 
the  fighting ;  and  the  ambulances  were  already  coming 
back  with  the  wounded.  The  vine-clad  hills  between 
Pelischat  and  Sgalevitza,  further  northward,  were  covered 
with  heavy  cannon-smoke,  and  the  fierce  bicker  of  rifle-fire 
mingled  with  the  thunder  of  artillery  so  loudly  as  to  show 
that  if  the  Turks  were  merely  making  a  demonstration  it 
was  a  very  violent  one,  to  say  the  least  of  it.  Just  to  the 
right  of  Pelischat  a  Russian  battery  was  in  energetic 
action,  throwing  shells  over  the  ridge  a  mile  in  front, 
which  exploded  out  of  sight  in  the  direction  of  a  Russian 
redoubt  which  I  knew  to  be  there.  It  was  clear,  then, 
that  the  Turks  were  in  possession  of  this  redoubt,  and 
that  the  Russian  left  had  been  thrown  back  on  the 
trenches  in  front  of  Pelischat.  Galloping  forward  to  an 
elevation  just  left  of  that  village,  I  found  there  some 
officers  who  told  me  that  the  redoubt  I  have  mentioned 
had  been  taken  by  the  Turks  at  the  beginning  of  the 
fight,  retaken  by  the  Russians,  and  finally  was  again  in 


I  ^o  Czar  and  Sultan 


Turkish  possession  and  was  now  being   furiously  shelled 
by  the  Russian  batteries. 

"  I  had  not  been  on  the  hillock  five  minutes  when  sud- 
denly the  crest  of  the  ridge  in  front  grew  black  as  with  a 
line  of  ink  drawn  across  the  clear  sky.  Through  the  glass 
I  discerned  this  black  line  to  be  the  Turkish  army,  prepar- 
ing for  a  direct  assault  on  the  Russian  positions  after  its 
initial  success  in  capturing  the  advanced  redoubt.  The 
ridge  it  held  commanded  that  occupied  by  the  Russians 
from  Pelischat  to  Sgalevitza,  and  the  distance  between  the 
two  ridges  was  something  over  a  mile.  General  Zotoff, 
who  was  the  Russian  commander,  had  manned  the 
trenches  in  front  of  both  those  places  and  the  space 
between  them  with  four  whole  regiments  —  about  10,000 
men  —  had  brought  three  batteries  into  action,  and  had 
ordered  up  his  reserves.  In  less  than  five  minutes  after 
crowning  the  forward  ridge  the  Turks  began  to  descend 
the  hither  slope  straight  in  our  direction,  leisurely  and 
without  firing,  not  in  masses  or  lines  but  scattered  and 
diffused.  They  came  down  about  half-way  in  this  man- 
ner, the  Russian  shells  all  the  time  tearing  up  the  groups 
they  formed  in  the  most  savage  manner. 

"  Just  as  I  was  thinking  of  clearing  out  the  Turks 
brought  up  their  right  shoulders,  their  front  bending 
nearly  half-left,  and,  while  the  Russian  infantry-fire  was 
now  punishing  them  heavily,  they  went  at  the  Russian 
trenches  about  half-way  between  the  two  villages  with 
shouts  of  '  Allah  !  '  opening  fire  at  the  same  time.  As 
they  rushed  forward  they  descended  into  a  little  interme- 
diate hollow  and  were  lost  to  my  view  for  a  short  time, 
while   the  Russian   trenches   smoked   and   flamed  and  a 


Pelischat  and  Loftcha  131 

storm  of  bullets  poured  down  upon  the  Turks  struggling 
onward  through  the  hollow.  This  lasted  from  fifteen  to 
twenty  mmutes,  during  which  time  a  fearful  loss  of  life 
must  have  occurred.  Then  we  saw  the  Turks  begin  to 
withdraw,  carrying  off  their  wounded  as  they  went.  But 
the  brave  fellows  had  not  yet  enough. 

"  They  had  scarcely  withdrawn  out  of  range  of  the  Rus- 
sian fire  when  they  hardened  their  hearts  and  came  on 
again  to  the  attack.  Scourged  by  shot  and  shell  they 
plunged  gallantly  down  into  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of 
death,  to  struggle  there  amid  smoke  and  fire  in  a  death- 
struggle  of  giants  —  for,  Skobeleff,  no  man  knows  better 
than  yourself  that  there  is  nothing  to  choose  between 
Turk  and  Russian  on  the  score  of  bravery.  Dozens,  of 
Turkish  bodies  were  found  on  the  very  lip  of  the  Russian 
trenches.  The  gentle  slope,  on  the  crest  of  which  those 
trenches  were,  was  literally  covered  with  dead.  I  counted 
seven  in  a  space  of  not  more  than  ten  feet  square.  The 
battle  here  was  terrible ;  the  Turks  were  again  repulsed 
and  again  retired  out  of  fire.  You  will  hardly  believe  me 
when  I  tell  you  that  the  indomitable  Turks  went  at  it  yet 
again  ;  but  it  is  the  fact  that  they  did  so.  To  us  who  had 
watched  the  two  preceding  assaults  this  third  effort  seemed 
sheer  madness,  because  we  could  see  that  the  Russian  fire 
never  slackened  an  instant  and  that  the  Russian  line  never 
wavered  ;  while  we  knew,  also,  that  the  Russian  reserves 
were  waiting  behind  ready  to  fall  on  at  the  least  sign  of 
wavering  on  the  part  of  the  troops  in  the  trenches. 

"The  scene  of  carnage  was  again  repeated,  but  the 
struggle  now  lasted  only  for  a  few  moments.  The  Turks, 
completely  broken,  withdrew   sullenly,  firing  and  taking 


132  Czar  and  Sultan 

time  to  carry  off  their  wounded  and  indeed  many  of  their 
dead.  Still  they  held  on  to  the  redoubt  which  they  had 
earlier  captured  and  upon  which  they  fell  back  with  the 
apparent  intention  of  retaining  it  permanently,  but  they 
were  not  allowed  to  remain  long  in  occupation  of  that 
work.  The  Russians  followed  up  with  a  murderous  fire, 
and  then  six  strong  companies  went  at  the  redoubt  with 
the  bayonet  and  swept  the  Turks  out  of  it  like  a  whirl- 
wind. Very  soon  the  Turks  were  in  retreat  everywhere ; 
the  Russians  regained  the  whole  of  their  advanced  posi- 
tions and  pursued  the  Turks  some  distance  with  cavalry. 
The  Russians,  engaged  and  in  reserve,  were  about  20,000 ; 
their  loss  was  about  1,000.  There  were  probably  about 
25,000  Turks  with  about  50  guns;  their  loss  we  reckoned 
roughly  at  3,000  men  killed  and  wounded.  No  prisoners 
were  taken  on  either  side." 

In  talking  the  matter  over,  neither  Skobeleff  nor  Mac- 
Gahan  could  divine  what  was  the  object  of  Osman  Pasha 
in  making  this  attack.  In  the  words  of  the  former,  it  was 
too  strong  for  a  reconnaissance  and  too  weak  for  a  serious 
attack. 

That  same  night  Skobeleff  —  who  had  come  from 
Loftcha  merely  for  the  day  to  consult  with  General 
Zotoff  in  command  here  at  Poradim  in  regard  to  some 
difficulty  which  had  presented  itself  to  Prince  Imeretinsky 
who  had  the  superior  charge  of  the  Russian  forces  about 
Loftcha  —  left  on  his  return  to  his  quarters  at  Kakrinka, 
on  the  east  of  Loftcha,  a  ride  of  about  18  miles.  "I 
believe,"  said  he,  "  that  there  will  be  wigs  on  the  green 
to-morrow  in  front  of  Loftcha.  Do  any  of  you  fellows 
care  to  see  the  fun  ?     If  so,  saddle  up  and  come  along !  " 


Pelischat  and  Loftcha  133 


Boyle  had  no  horse  available,  Jackson  did  not  ride,  Villiers 
was  oppressed  by  a  pile  of  unfinished  sketches,  and  when 
Skobeleff  came  from  Zotoff  and  shouted — "Who's  for 
Kakrinka  ?  "  MacGahan  and  myself  were  the  only  volun- 
teers. I  own  that  I  wanted  to  see  what  Skobeleff  called 
"the  fun" — that  was  one  reason  why  I  went;  another 
was  that  MacGahan  was  still  very  lame,  and  quite  unable 
to  get  out  of  any  difficulty  on  foot  if  any  accident  should 
occur  to  his  horse.  As  we  rode  along  in  the  darkness,  I 
listened  in  great  surprise  to  Skobeleff's  animated  and 
bitter  talk.  "  I've  a  good  mind,"  said  he  to  MacGahan, 
"  to  desert  and  join  the  Turks  —  I  am  so  mad  with  our 
idiots  of  the  headquarter  staff.  I  don't  speak  of  the 
Grand  Duke  Nicholas  —  he  is  a  mere  figure-head  and 
has  about  as  much  notion  of  conducting  a  campaign  as 
I  have  of  the  differential  calculus.  Old  Nepokoitschitsky, 
the  chief  of  staff,  is  a  mere  sergeant-major,  and  has  learned 
nothing  since  the  Crimean  war  in  which  he  distinguished 
himself  by  bull-headed  personal  bravery.  The  man  who 
is  responsible  for  all  our  follies  and  troubles  is  that 
pedantic  Professor  Levitsky,  the  assistant  chief  of  staff. 
It  was  he,  for  instance,  who  as  soon  as  it  was  known  that 
a  Turkish  army  was  marching  down  the  Danube  from 
Widdin,  should  have  sent  out  reconnaissances  to  watch  it, 
which  should  never  have  lost  touch  of  it  until  a  Russian 
army  was  ready  to  meet  and  fight  it  before  it  could 
threaten  our  right  flank.  Nothing  of  this  nature  was 
done,  and  the  Turks  were  actually  in  Plevna  and  fortify- 
ing their  position  before  we  were  aware  that  they  were 
within  20  miles  of  us.  That  was  bad  enough  in  all 
conscience ;  and  our  blundering  and  stupid  neglect  in  not 


134  Czar  and  Stilt  an 


occupying  Plevna  in  advance  of  the  approach  of  the  Turks 
has  wrought  us  mischief  of  which  we  cannot  yet  know  the 
final  result.  But  one  thing  is  certain,  that  as  soon  as  we 
knew  of  the  occupation  of  Plevna  by  the  Turks  we  should 
immediately  have  seized  and  held  Loftcha.  And  this  for 
two  obvious  reasons.  With  the  Turks  in  Loftcha  it  is  just 
as  impossible  for  us  to  cross  the  Balkans  as  it  would  be  if 
we  had  retaken  Plevna  in  the  attempt  of  July  30th.  The 
possession  of  either  point  —  of  Loftcha  as  well  as  of  Plevna 
—  equally  hinders  our  advance  southward  of  the  Balkans. 
I  hope  that  in  a  day  or  two  Loftcha  may  be  ours.  But 
even  so,  while  Plevna  is  held  by  the  Turks  we  still  remain 
pinned  down  to  the  region  northward  of  the  mountains. 

"  And,  again,  just  look  at  the  mince-meat  which  Levit- 
sky  has  made  of  the  army  while  waiting  on  the  defensive 
for  the  reinforcements  which  are  now  arriving !  Divis- 
ions, brigades,  and  even  regiments  have  been  cut  up, 
parcelled  out,  and  sent  to  all  the  points  of  the  compass  — 
dispersed  in  order  to  patch  up  a  hole  here  and  close  a 
crevice  there,  to  such  an  extent  of  dislocation  that  their 
reunion  will  present  the  greatest  difficulties.  Just  look, 
for  example,  at  the  14th  Division,  which  we  consider  the 
best  in  the  army.  A  part  of  it  is  at  Osman  Bazaar,  an- 
other about  Elena,  a  part  at  Khaini,  a  part  at  Selvi,  a  part 
at  Tirnova ;  all  points  far  apart  and  having  no  tactical 
connection  with  each  other.  Its  commander  is  left  at 
Tirnova  with  a  couple  of  battalions,  his  fine  division  dis- 
persed in  fragments  all  over  the  face  of  the  country. 
All  this  dislocation  has  arisen  from  Levitsky's  miscalcula- 
tion of  the  important  defensive  points  and  the  force 
required   for   each    point ;  and   then  from   his  efforts   to 


Pclischat  and  Loftcha  135 


remedy  the  miscalculation  in  a  hand-to-mouth  fashion 
by  grabbing  troops  wherever  he  could  find  them  —  a  bat- 
talion here,  a  regiment  there — hurriedly  to  strengthen 
the  threatened  and  weak  positions.  These  blunders  of 
Levitsky  stare  every  one  in  the  face  —  personally  I  won- 
der that  he  has  not  been  man  enough  to  go  out  and  hang 
himself.  But  no  —  he  still  blunders  along  with  all  the 
self-complacency  in  life  ;  and  if  the  Commander-in-Chief 
has  found  him  out  by  this  time,  as  he  surely  must  have 
done,  he  has  not  given  himself  the  trouble  to  send  him 
home  to  his  congenial  duty  of  instructing  cadets." 

Skobeleff  rode  on  for  a  couple  of  versts  in  silence, 
occasionally  muttering  to  himself.  Then  he  broke  out 
again:  "The  Russian  soldier  is  beyond  all  praise — he 
is  a  trifle  stupid,  but  he  is  brave  and  staunch  and  he  does 
not  know  what  a  panic  means.  Our  weakness  is  in  the 
officers.  They  are  frank  enough.  You  will  hear  them 
honestly  confess :  '  Ah,  if  we  were  but  half  as  good  as 
our  soldiers,  the  Russian  army  would  be  the  best  in  the 
world  ! '  Our  senior  generals  are  nearly  all  bad,  veterans 
although  a  good  many  of  them  are.  I  will  tell  you  how 
this  came  about.  After  the  Crimean  war  there  was  in 
Russia  a  very  strong  and  bitter  feeling  against  the  army 
in  consequence  of  the  surrender  of  Sevastopol,  and  the 
conclusion  of  what  was  regarded  as  a  discreditable  peace. 
The  popular  feeling  was  so  strong  that  the  Government 
yielded  to  it,  and  indeed  neglected  the  army.  The 
service  thus  became  unpopular,  and  the  best  and  bravest 
of  the  officers  who  had  distinguished  themselves  in  the 
war — the  men  who  were  capable  of  profiting  by  the 
experience    gained,    who    had    become    splendid    officers 


136  Czar  mid  Sultan 

in  the  stern  ordeal  of  battle  —  became  disgusted  and  in- 
dignant at  the  treatment  they  received,  and  resigned 
their  commissions.  Those  were  the  men  who  should 
have  been  the  generals  of  to-day.  When  they  retired 
their  places  were  taken  by  men  of  an  inferior  class, 
whose  want  of  means  prevented  their  retirement,  whose 
want  of  education  hindered  them  from  adopting  civil  pro- 
fessions, or  whose  thick-skinnedness  made  them  indiffer- 
ent to  neglect  and  reproach.  And  these  are  the  men 
who  are  our  generals  to-day.  You,  MacGahan,  have  eyes 
in  your  head,  and  you  have  been  with  us  since  we  crossed 
the  Pruth.  I  ask  you,  of  the  sixty  or  seventy  generals 
of  brigade,  division  or  corps  commanders,  have  you  yet 
seen  one  man  who  has  given  proof  of  exceptional  talent, 
who  has  risen  high  enough  above  the  level  of  mediocrity 
to  challenge  attention,  who  has  begun  to  make  any  sign 
as  being  the  man  of  the  future  ?  Well,  yes,  as  you  say, 
you  have  seen  Gourko,  a  man  of  great  energy  and  a 
brilliant  handler  of  cavalry,  but  he  had  to  come  back 
through  the  same  pass  in  the  Balkans  as  that  by  which 
he  had  gone  out.  Dragomiroff .-'  —  well,  he  is  a  sensible 
elderly  gentleman  who  is  earnest  enough,  and  his  disposi- 
tions for  the  crossing  of  the  Danube  —  no  great  exploit 
—  were  quite  satisfactory;  but  he  himself  should  have 
been  across  earlier  than  was  the  case.  Radetski  .-* — a 
grand  old  war  dog,  yes,  and  knows  about  as  much  of 
strategy  and  tactics  as  the  sergeant-major  of  one  of  his 
regiments. 

"  In  the  lower  grades  of  ofificerhood,  things,  I  admit," 
continued  Skobeleff,  "  are  better.  The  company  officers 
and  the  heads  of  regiments  are  good  men,  and  will  com- 


Pelischat  and  Loftcha  137 


pare  favourably  with  officers  of  the  same  rank  in  any- 
European  army  except  the  Prussian.  By  a  wholesome  law 
recently  decreed  the  command  of  a  company  may  be  given 
to  a  lieutenant  if  its  captain  should  show  himself  incapable 
or  negligent.  As  the  actual  command  of  a  company 
carries  an  addition  of  500  roubles  to  the  officer's  pay,  the 
lieutenants  are  very  anxious  to  prove  themselves  compe- 
tent to  command  a  company,  while  the  captains  who  have 
companies  are  careful  by  no  neglect  of  duty  to  give  occa- 
sion for  being  deprived  of  their  command,  and  so  lapsing 
into  the  position  of  being  simply  '  attached '  to  the 
regiment. 

"  Once  the  captain  becomes  a  major,  however,  and 
receives  the  command  of  a  battalion,  the  case  becomes 
different.  He  has  then  little  to  fear  and  little  to  hope  for 
but  his  retirement  and  his  pension.  Unless  he  does  some- 
thing very  bad,  his  battalion  cannot  be  taken  from  him ; 
and  unless  he  finds  some  opportunity  to  really  distin- 
guish himself,  or  unless  he  has  powerful  friends,  it  is 
difficult  for  him  to  get  a  regiment.  The  result  is  that  he 
generally  settles  down  into  an  apathetic,  indifferent  officer, 
who  barely  does  his  duty  and  no  more,  with  nothing  better 
to  look  forward  to.  The  commanders  of  regiments  are  a 
better  class  of  men,  as  you  may  have  had  occasion  to 
notice.  They  are  either  those  officers  who  have  distin- 
guished themselves  in  the  lower  grades  and  were  promoted 
for  bravery,  a  brilliant  action,  marked  capacity,  superior 
education  and  intelligence ;  or  else  they  are  officers  from 
the  Guards,  men  of  good  family,  with  position,  education, 
and  fortune.  I  will  not  go  so  far  as  to  say  that  they  are 
often  very  studious,  or  very  much  given  to  consuming  the 


1^8  Czar  and  Sulta^i 


midnight  oil,  at  least  for  purposes  of  study ;  but  they  are 
brave,  clever,  active,  and  intelligent,  with  honour  and  rep- 
utation at  stake,  and,  taken  all  in  all,  a  creditable  body  of 
officers." 

In  the  grey  morning  dawn  Kakrinka  seemed  rather 
a  worse  dog-hole  than  Poradim.  But  there  was  one  good 
house  where  Skobeleff  had  his  quarters,  and  MacGahan 
and  myself  were  his  guests.  After  a  few  hours'  sleep 
Skobeleff  called  us  to  a  somewhat  late  breakfast.  There 
was  no  hurry,  he  said  —  Imeretinsky,  who  was  the  com- 
manding officer,  had  not  yet  begun  his  march  from  Selvi, 
and  pending  his  chief's  arrival  Skobeleff  was  to  undertake 
merely  the  preliminaries.  His  force  was  far  from  strong. 
MacGahan  remarked  to  him  that  if  the  Turks  had  any 
enterprise,  they  would  surely  come  out  and  cut  him  to 
pieces.  "  What  are  the  relative  strengths  ?  "  asked  Mac- 
Gahan. "  Oh,"  replied  Skobeleff  with  a  yawn,  "  I  suppose 
good  Mr.  Adil  Pasha  has  some  15,000  men  in  and  around 
Loftcha."  "And  you.?"  asked  MacGahan.  "Well,  I 
don't  grumble,"  answered  Skobeleff,—  "  I  have  some  3,500 
infantry,  the  Caucasian  Cossack  cavalry  brigade,  and  two 
batteries  ;  and  I  can  either  stand  or  run  as  I  think  best." 
I  had  already  seen  a  good  deal  of  Skobeleff,  and  he  had 
not  seemed  to  me  to  be  the  kind  of  man  who  was  fond  of 
running. 

It  was  September  ist.  About  noon  Skobeleff  left 
Kakrinka  and  marched  with  his  little  force  along  the  Selvi 
road  in  the  direction  of  Loftcha.  After  a  two  hours' 
march,  he  halted  near  the  foot  of  a  long  ridge  running 
north  and  south.  On  the  ridge,  some  distance  northward 
of  the  point  where  the  road  crossed  it,  was  a  small  Turkish 


Pelischat  and  Loftcha  139 

camp  without  artillery.  On  this  camp  Skobeleff  opened 
fire  with  his  guns,  and  the  Turks  very  soon  retired,  skir- 
mishing as  they  went.  Pickets  were  sent  up  to  hold  the 
ridge  while  the  force  occupied  the  adjacent  village  of 
Paltijan.  This  seemed  to  me  not  much  of  a  day's  work, 
and  posing  in  my  ingenuousness  as  an  embryo  military 
critic,  I  made  a  remark  to  MacGahan  to  that  effect.  After 
a  passing  allusion  to  the  profound  wisdom  of  young  peo- 
ple who  addict  themselves  to  the  instruction  of  their 
grandmothers  in  the  science  of  sucking  eggs,  he  suggested 
that  I  should  wait  until  night  fell,  when  I  should  see  what 
I  should  see.  In  the  dusk  Skobeleff  mustered  his  detach- 
ment and  marched  up  to  the  ridge,  where  his  pickets  were 
already.  Then  the  whole  force  went  to  work  to  entrench 
the  position  and  to  construct  epaulements  for  24  guns,  in 
readiness  to  be  placed  in  which  were  the  eight  guns  be- 
longing to  the  detachment.  MacGahan  had  told  Skobeleff 
of  my  comment  on  the  idleness  of  the  day.  The  general 
came  to  where  I  was  and  sat  down  beside  me  to  smoke 
a  cigar.  He  had  been  working  with  his  own  hands  in 
a  trench,  part  of  the  earth  from  which  he  had  brought 
away  on  his  clothes.  "  Well,  young  fellow,"  said  he, 
"how  do  you  like  night  work.?"  "What  I  wonder  at," 
was  my  sage  reply,  "  is  why  you  should  prefer  to  work  in 
the  darkness  instead  of  doing  yesterday  afternoon  what 
you  are  doing  now."  "  I  am  a  very  humane  man,"  said 
Skobeleff — "it  is  my  misfortune  and  my  sorrow  that 
sometimes  I  cannot  avoid  having  my  men  killed ;  but  I  do 
spare  them  all  I  can.  We  are  here  within  range  of  the 
Turkish  cannon  on  the  Red  Hill,  which  you  have  not  yet 
seen ;    had   we    set   about    entrenching  in    daylight   they 


140  Czar  and  Sultan 

would  have  made  things  very  unpleasant.  Now  that  it  is 
comparatively  dark,  you  may  have  observed  that  I  had 
forbidden  all  lights.  The  Turks  keep  bad  watch,  and  we 
are  working  in  safety." 

At  daybreak  of  the  2nd  Skobeleff  opened  an  enfilading 
fire  on  the  Turkish  battery  on  the  ridge  south  of  the  road. 
The  battery  soon  gave  out,  but  the  Turkish  infantry  who 
had  been  in  camp  behind  it  were  not  dislodged  until  the 
afternoon.  As  they  reluctantly  departed,  Skobeleff  de- 
termined to  send  a  regiment  after  them  to  quicken  their 
pace  and  to  force  the  Turkish  infantry  which  he  believed 
to  be  behind  the  Red  Hill  to  deploy  and  thus  show  their 
strength.  It  was  a  pretty  sight  enough,  the  desultory 
skirmishing  between  the  Turkish  rear  and  the  riflemen 
in  the  Russian  front.  Presently,  however,  the  Russians 
pushed  forward  rapidly,  and  in  lees  time  than  I  had 
thought  possible  they  were  nearing  the  foot  of  the  Red 
Hill.  Skobeleff,  who  had  not  closed  an  eye  all  night, 
was  taking  forty  winks  in  the  lee  of  an  epaulement. 
MacGahan  woke  him,  and  silently  pointed  towards 
Loftcha.  The  Kirghis  lad  who  was  his  groom  had 
recognised  the  situation,  and  was  standing  close  by  hold- 
ing Skobeleff's  white  Arab  stallion  and  having  his 
master's  white  coat  over  his  arm.  Skobeleff  threw  off 
his  cloth  tunic,  scented  himself,  donned  the  white  coat, 
mounted  the  Arab,  and  with  his  escort  of  a  dozen  Cau- 
casian Cossacks  at  his  back,  galloped  down  the  slope  and 
along  the  road  towards  the  Red  Hill.  By  this  time  the 
Russian  soldiers  had  broke  into  the  double,  and  were 
running  at  top  speed  towards  the  hill,  up  which,  indeed, 
some  were   already  dodging   by  twos   and   threes   under 


Pelischat  and  Loftcha  141 

cover  of  the  bushes  and  the  little  hollows.  At  first  we 
thought  Skobeleff  had  the  intention  to  head  an  assault 
on  the  batteries  on  the  hill.  But  as  the  Turkish  infantry- 
gathered  on  the  flanks  of  their  batteries,  MacGahan 
scouted  that  idea.  "Our  fellows,"  said  he,  "are  out  of 
hand.  They  have  got  the  fighting  madness  on  them, 
and  Skobeleff  is  galloping  forward  to  stop  them  —  that 
is  what  no  other  man  could  do  now,  and  I  question 
whether  Skobeleff  will  succeed  !  " 

We  saw  him  tearing  along  the  road,  he  and  his  handful 
of  horse,  the  Turkish  shells  falling  all  about  them.  The 
white  coat  and  the  white  horse  formed  a  splendid  target 
for  the  sharpshooters  on  the  slopes  of  the  Red  Hill. 
Suddenly  he  stopped,  waving  his  sword  to  right  and 
left ;  then  he  dismounted  and  got  on  another  horse ;  the 
white  Arabian  had  been  wounded  —  through  the  glass  I 
could  see  the  blood  running  down  his  shoulder.  His  es- 
cort of  some  twelve  Cossacks  when  he  started  was  now 
reduced  to  three,  the  others  we  had  seen  struck  down  in 
succession.  The  fire  along  the  Turkish  entrenchments 
was  increasing  and  the  Russians  were  still  pressing  for- 
ward. Skobeleff  gave  the  spur  to  his  fresh  mount,  a 
chestnut,  and  galloped  forward  at  speed.  As  he  reached 
the  foot  of  the  hill  we  could  discern  him  gesticulating 
while  his  trumpeter  kept  sounding  the  "  retreat ; "  and 
then  his  soldiers  began  sullenly  to  withdraw.  Just  then 
we  saw  him  go  down,  man  and  horse  together ;  Mac- 
Gahan gripped  me  tight  by  the  arm  and  exclaimed  with 
a  gasp  :  "  He  has  got  it  this  time !  "  I  saw  Skobeleff 
scramble  to  his  feet,  but  then  we  lost  sight  of  him,  and 
MacGahan  became  greatly  excited.     "  It  is  impossible," 


142  Czar  and  Siiltan 


said  he,  "  to  go  on  in  this  way  long  without  getting  him- 
self killed.  He  had  two  horses  killed  under  him  in  the 
Plevna  battle !  " 

Meanwhile  the  Turkish  iire  was  on  the  increase.  "The 
bullets  must  be  falling  about  them  like  hail,"  said  Mac- 
Gahan  ;  "  it  will  be  a  miracle  if  Skabeleff  comes  out  of  it 
alive  !  "  A  cloud  of  dust  and  smoke  gathered  for  a  mo- 
ment—  the  wind  swept  it  away  in  a  few  minutes.  And 
lo !  there  was  Skobeleff  on  a  third  horse,  coming  back 
along  the  road  at  an  easy  trot  in  evident  composure.  He 
had  not  received  a  scratch  —  his  .white  coat  had  hardly 
a  stain  on  it.  He  swung  himself  out  of  the  saddle,  came 
up  to  us  with  a  smile,  and  lit  a  cigarette.  "  The  old  gen- 
tleman will  swear,"  he  blandly  remarked.  "This  makes 
the  fourth  horse  I  have  had  shot  under  me  within  the 
month.  Poor  papa!  he  little  knows  how  many  roubles 
he  will  have  to  fork  out  when  next  we  meet !  "  Although 
Skobeleff  did  not  know,  he  had  lost  a  fifth  horse.  As  I 
was  going  back  to  the  camp,  I  found  his  Kirghis  lad  sit- 
ting on  the  ground  weeping  bitterly  over  the  carcase  of 
Skobeleff's  noble  Turcoman  horse  —  the  animal  on  which 
he  had  swum  the  Danube.  Lad  and  horse  had  come  all 
the  way  from  Khokand.  The  Kirghis,  although  himself 
slightly  wounded,  had  brought  the  horse  back  from  under 
fire,  and  finding  that  his  state  was  hopeless  had  killed 
him,  skinned  him,  cut  off  his  hoofs,  and  was  now  sitting 
by  the  carcase  weeping  over  it,  without  paying  the 
slightest  attention  to  his  own  wound.  He  had  been 
utterly  indifferent  when  Skobeleff's  other  horses  were 
killed;  but  this  one,  he  said,  was  his  countryman  and 
brother  —  the   only  thing  he  had  to   remind    him  of  his 


Pelischat  and  LoftcJia  143 

far-away  home.  The  tears  were  running  down  the  poor 
fellow's  cheeks  in  a  stream.  He  had  two  bullets  through 
his  clothes,  one  of  which  had  made  a  flesh-wound  in  his 
arm. 

Before  starting  on  the  ride  which  I  have  tried  to  de- 
scribe to  you,  Skobeleff  had  ordered  one  of  his  regiments 
to  occupy  the  position  which  the  Turks  had  just  evacuated 
on  the  section  of  ridge  south  of  the  road.  The  second 
night  was  spent  there  in  entrenching  that  position,  and  in 
constructing  battery  emplacements.  When  Imeretinsky 
arrived  on  the  evening  of  the  3rd  with  the  bulk  of  the 
force,  which,  including  Skobeleff's  detachment,  consisted 
of  about  20,000  men  and  80  guns,  he  found  Skobeleff  in 
possession  of  the  commanding  ridge  east  of  Loftcha,  with 
epaulements  prepared  for  56  guns  —  24  on  the  ridge  north 
of  the  road,  32  on  the  section  to  its  south.  During  the 
night  the  guns  were  brought  up  into  position  by  the  in- 
fantry. General  Dobrovolski  with  the  3rd  Rifle  Brigade 
was  away  to  the  right  in  front  of  the  village  of  Prissiaka, 
from  which  he  had  driven  the  Turkish  pickets. 

The  line  of  the  Turkish  position  was  along  a  series  of 
knolls  on  the  eastern  bank  of  the  river  Osma,  the  com- 
manding position  being  at  its  southern  extremity  which 
the  Russians  called  the  "Red  Hill "  of  which  I  have 
already  told  you.  In  strength  of  men  as  well  as  in  number 
of  guns  the  Turks  were  considerably  the  weaker;  but 
they  had  the  counter-benefit  of  a  strong  defensive  position 
further  strengthened  by  a  series  of  lines  of  entrenchment. 
The  town  of  Loftcha  is  on  the  western  bank,  and  on  an 
elevation  behind  the  town  the  Turks  had  a  strong  redoubt, 
several  batteries,  and  several  successive  lines  of  entrench- 


144  Czar  and  Sultan 

ments.  All  this  which  I  now  tell  you,  we  only  knew  after 
the  place  had  been  carried. 

Skobeleff  had  carefully  prepared  overnight  the  scheme 
of  attack.  I  wish  I  had  a  copy  of  that  document  to  read 
to  you  :  it  would  convince  you  that  Skobeleff  was  not  less 
a  skilled  and  wise  scientific  officer  than  a  man  whose 
presence  in  front  of  his  troops  carried  his  men  with  him 
like  a  whirlwind.  His  scheme  enjoined  the  bombardment 
of  the  Red  Hill  for  several  hours,  and  then  an  assault 
upon  it  to  be  followed  by  the  occupation  of  the  trenches 
further  north.  This  scheme  was  somewhat  interfered 
with  by  an  attack  made  by  the  Turks  from  those  northern 
hills  on  the  village  of  Prissiaka,  which  after  some  hard 
fighting  was  repulsed  by  General  Dobrovolski,  who  dis- 
lodged the  Turks  and  drove  them  across  the  river  with 
considerable  loss. 

The  cannonade  lasted  for  eight  hours.  It  was  an  un- 
equal strife,  for  the  Russian  batteries  on  the  ridge  mounted 
56  guns  against  the  12  with  which  the  Turks  held  the  Red 
Hill.  At  length  about  2  p.m.  the  latter  were  crushed, 
and  Skobeleff  moved  out  to  the  attack  at  the  head  of  two 
regiments  —  about  5,000  men.  The  bombardment,  as  we 
found  when  we  followed  Skobeleff  on  to  the  Red  Hill,  had 
knocked  about  the  Turkish  entrenchments  very  severely. 
They  were  full  of  dead  and  wounded,  and  the  Russian 
attack  encountered  very  little  resistance.  By  three  o'clock 
there  was  not  a  Turk  east  of  the  Osma.  Skobeleff  hurried 
up  two  batteries  which  he  stationed  on  the  Red  Hill  to 
fire  on  the  redoubt  beyond  the  town ;  then  he  crossed  the 
river,  fought  his  way  through  the  town  in  spite  of  a  strong 
resistance  on  the  part  of  the  Turks  whom  he  ultimately 


Pelischat  and  Loftcha  145 

drove  through  and  out  of  it,  and  then  deployed  his  troops 
in  the  gardens  on  its  outskirts  in  face  of  the  second  Turk- 
ish position.  By  this  time  his  force  had  been  increased 
to  a  strength  of  some  thirteen  battalions  —  about  9,000 
men ;  two  more  were  lining  the  river  to  the  north  and 
the  Rifle  Brigade  was  working  round  the  Turkish  flank. 
While  the  infantrymen  among  the  gardens  were  resting 
after  their  exertions,  four  batteries  were  maintaining  a 
continuous  fire  on  the  Turkish  redoubt.  At  length,  at 
half-past  five,  Skobeleff  gave  the  word.  The  cannonade 
ceased  and  the  whole  infantry  line  sprang  forward, 
Skobeleff  himself  making  a  direct  assault  from  the  gar- 
dens, a  detached  brigade  fording  the  river  lower  down  and 
taking  the  Turks  in  flank,  while  the  Rifle  Brigade  on  the 
extreme  right  held  the  Plevna  road  and  prevented  the 
Turkish  retreat  in  that  direction. 

The  Turks  fought  on  the  defensive  with  great  despera- 
tion. They  succeeded  in  carrying  off  the  whole  of  their 
artillery,  sending  it  to  the  south-west  by  the  Mikren  road. 
Their  infantry  covered  the  withdrawal  with  fine  constancy, 
maintaining  a  hot  fire  which  was  very  destructive  to  their 
Russian  adversaries.  But  the  resolute  Russians  steadily 
continued  their  advance;  and  at  length  the  Turks  were 
driven  entirely  out  of  their  entrenchments  and  now  held 
only  the  main  redoubt,  which,  although  surrounded  on 
three  sides,  kept  up  its  fire  to  the  very  last.  The  Rus- 
sians hung  somewhat  around  it,  for  it  was  a  grim  and 
formidable  obstacle.  Suddenly  we  heard  a  great  cheer; 
a  broad  back  in  a  white  coat  was  seen  to  rush  up  the  slop- 
ing face  of  the  Turkish  work.  A  swarm  of  dark-clothed 
men  followed  their  guiding  spirit,   and  the  redoubt  was 


146  Czar  and  Sultan 


carried  at  dusk  in  the  midst  of  a  hand-to-hand  struggle  in 
which  perished  all  its  defenders  and  many  of  its  assailants. 
At  the  close  of  the  fight  we  entered  the  redoubt  to  witness 
a  ghastly  sight.  The  bodies  of  the  dead  and  wounded, 
Russians  and  Turks  together,  lay  piled  up  in  a  mass  six 
feet  deep  around  the  gorge.  Skobeleff  stood  panting  in 
the  heart  of  the  slaughter,  leaning  on  his  bloody  sword. 
He  was  unhurt,  but  there  were  great  smears  of  blood  on 
the  white  coat.  It  was  after  this  success  that  the  Emperor 
toasted  him  as  "  The  Hero  of  Loftcha." 

The  Turks  departed  in  scattered  bands  along  the  road 
to  Mikren.  Imeretinsky  was  under  orders  to  move  towards 
Plevna,  but  he  detached  the  Caucasian  Cossack  brigade  to 
follow  up  the  Turkish  retreat  which  soon  degenerated  into 
a  rout.  Pursuers  and  pursued  were  co-religionists,  but 
there  was  no  ruth  in  the  hearts  of  the  Cossack  Mahom- 
edans  for  the  Ottoman  followers  of  the  Prophet.  When 
they  rejoined  Imeretinsky's  command  their  boast  was  that 
they  had  slain  3,000  Turkish  fugitives  in  the  long  and 
fierce  pursuit.  In  the  capture  of  Loftcha  the  Russians 
lost  1,500  officers  and  men.  The  Turks  suffered  dread- 
fully. There  were  but  15,000  of  them  all  told  in  Loftcha 
when  the  operations  began :  there  were  buried  in  and 
about  Loftcha  2,200;  3,000  fell  in  the  retreat.  In  effect 
Adil  Pasha's  force  was  cut  to  pieces  :  it  made  no  attempt 
to  recover  Loftcha,  and  never  showed  a  front  any  more. 


CHAPTER   VIII 

THE  SEPTEMBER  BATTLE  OF  PLEVNA 

MACGAHAN  and  I  returned  from  Loftcha  to  the 
dog  hole  at  Poradim  on  the  evening  of  September 
5th.  The  filthy  village  by  this  time  was  swarming  with 
correspondents  representing  some  half-score  of  European 
nationalities,  not  to  speak  of  the  gentlemen  from  the  other 
side  of  the  Atlantic.  In  the  Bulgarian  school-house  of 
Poradim  Prince  Charles  of  Roumania  was  now  in  resi- 
dence. He  had  been  appointed  to  the  chief  command  of 
the  whole  Russo-Roumanian  army  now  before  Plevna, 
with  General  Zotoff,  lately  commanding  the  4th  Russian 
Army  Corps,  as  his  chief  of  staff.  As  you  know.  Prince 
Charles  —  he  is  King  Charles  now  —  is  of  the  great  house 
of  Hohenzollern,  to  the  older  branch  of  which  he  belongs. 
It  is  the  junior  branch  which  gives  to  Prussia  its  kings  and 
to  Germany  its  emperors.  The  prince  was  a  lieutenant  in 
a  Prussian  dragoon  regiment  when  in  1866  he  was  chosen 
to  be  the  ruler  of  Roumania.  I  believe  that  he  had  to 
reach  Bucharest  in  the  disguise  of  a  courier  —  some  say  a 
footman  —  because  of  the  opposition  his  election  encoun- 
tered on  the  part  of  unscrupulous  malcontents.  A  quiet 
but  resolute  man,  the  prince  made  good  his  footing  in 
Roumania  ;  and  in  the  course  of  the  first  ten  years  of  his 
reign  he  had  created  a  very  respectable  army,  to  which 

«47 


148  Czar  and  Sultan 

the  Russians  were  much  beholden  during  the  crisis  of 
their  precarious  tenure  of  Northern  Bulgaria,  while  as  yet 
their  much-needed  reinforcements  were  still  on  the  way. 

Three  fine  divisions  of  the  Roumanian  army  were  now 
before  Plevna ;  the  Russian  corps  which  had  lost  heavily 
in  the  earlier  fighting  about  Plevna  had  been  replenished 
from  the  reserves  at  home  ;  two  fresh  divisions,  hurried 
forward  from  Russia,  were  now  on  the  Bulgarian  side  of 
the  Danube.  The  whole  region  east  of  Plevna  swarmed 
with  armed  men,  and  the  ground  was  cumbered  by  regi- 
ments of  cavalry  and  great  parks  of  artillery.  We  were 
on  the  eve  of  witnessing  the  third  attempt  by  the  Russians 
to  expel  Osman  Pasha  and  his  Turks  from  that  position 
which  they  had  occupied  so  long  and  so  obstinately,  and 
had  fortified  with  so  much  skill.  For  myself,  in  my  inno- 
cent worship  of  numbers,  I  took  it  as  a  pure  certainty  that 
the  Russians  this  time  would  accomplish  their  purpose. 
The  closest  estimate  of  the  Turkish  strength  was  based 
on  figures  which  MacGahan  obtained  from  the  headquarter 
staff ;  —  according  to  which  Osman  had  about  56,000  in- 
fantry, 2,500  cavalry,  and  80  guns.  He  spent  the  evening 
in  working  out  the  Russian  strength  from  figures  in  his 
possession,  and  his  final  estimate  was  that  it  amounted 
in  round  numbers  to  75,000  infantry,  10,000  cavalry,  364 
field-guns,  54  horse-guns,  and  20  siege-guns  of  15  centi- 
metres. That  seemed  to  me  overwhelming  odds  in  favour 
of  the  Russians;  but  MacGahan  to  my  great  surprise 
prophesied  frankly  that  they  would  be  beaten.  "  It  is  an 
axiom  of  war,"  he  explained,  "  that  the  minimum  strength 
of  the  assailants  of  a  strong  position  held  by  an  adequate 
force  of  resolute  troops  must  be  double  that  of  the  defence ; 


PRINCE    CHARLES    OF    ROUMANIA. 


laPO    rOTRERo    AVRMUB 

«AK  nUNClMO 

T/ic  September  Battle  of  Plevna  149 

and  to  ensure  success  ought  to  be  three  times  as  great. 
You  will  observe,"  he  continued,  "  that  the  Russian  strength 
is  in  excess  of  the  Turkish  by  scarcely  one-third.  It  is 
true  that  the  Turks  are  disproportionately  weak  in  artil- 
lery ;  but  in  this  case  that  is  far  from  being  the  serious 
matter  you  may  suppose.  The  Turkish  defences  arc 
exclusively  earthworks ;  and  I  learned  to  know  in  our  civil 
war  how  little  avail  is  artillery  against  solid  mounds  of 
earth.  For  well  on  to  a  year  Lee's  rebel  army  in  Peters- 
burg held  at  bay  from  behind  their  lines  of  improvised 
earthworks  all  the  efforts  of  Grant's  army  more  than 
double  its  strength,  and  in  the  end  was  beaten  out  of  the 
position  neither  by  artillery-fire  nor  by  assault,  but  with- 
drew to  escape  from  being  invested.  Mark  my  words, 
youngster,"  remarked  the  shrewd  American  —  "the  Rus- 
sians will  be  whipped  before  Plevna  this  time  as  before ; 
then  they  will  realise  that  they  cannot  scoop  Osman  out 
of  it  by  dint  of  hard  blows,  and  they  will  do  with  him  as 
the  Germans  did  with  Bazaine  in  Metz  —  compel  him  to 
surrender  by  the  argument  of  starvation." 

On  the  afternoon  of  the  6th  we  rode  out  towards  the 
front  in  the  direction  of  Bogot.  The  order  had  been  given 
that  the  whole  army  except  the  reserves  should  bivouac  to- 
night close  up  to  the  forepost  line.  Everywhere  the  troops 
were  advancing.  The  scene  was  very  impressive.  Here 
a  long  column  of  cavalry,  with  dancing  pennons  on  their 
lances,  wound  up  the  gentle  green  slope  of  the  downs. 
There  a  whole  infantry  regiment  stood  in  dense  black 
square  waiting  for  the  command  to  march.  Yonder 
another,  deployed  into  line,  swept  briskly  forward  with 
bayonets  flashing  in  the  sunshine.     Battery  after  battery 


150  Czar  and  Sultan 

passed  onward,  the  rattle  of  the  wheels  muffled  by  the 
grassy  carpet.  Slowly  and  with  infinite  labour  the  ox- 
teams  lumbered  forwards,  drawing  the  great  siege-guns 
and  their  ammunition  on  the  way  to  the  prepared  posi- 
tions whence  to-morrow  the  huge  projectiles  would  hurtle 
into  the  Gravitza  redoubt.  On  our  right  tramped  the  men 
of  Kriidener's  corps  carrying  fascines,  gabions,  and  hewn 
logs,  to  be  used  in  constructing  the  platforms  for  the  siege- 
guns.  Ambulance  waggons,  empty  as  yet,  were  going 
towards  the  front  by  the  score.  The  soldiers  were  in  high 
condition  and  fine  spirits.  There  was  a  hearty  ring  in 
their  shout  of  answer  to  the  greetings  of  the  generals  who 
rode  past  them.  As  the  Grand  Duke  Nicholas  dashed  by 
at  a  striding  gallop  amidst  a  hurricane  of  cheers,  "  Morituri 
te  salutant''  murmured  the  pessimist  MacGahan. 

We  rode  back  to  Poradim  for  the  last  regular  meal 
we  were  to  partake  of  there  for  a  good  many  days  to 
come.  The  arrangements  for  bivouacking  were  complete. 
MacGahan's  long-lost  waggon  had  at  last  turned  up,  and 
Isaac  rejoiced  to  rejoin  his  erratic  master.  Both  it  and 
Villiers'  waggon  had  been  victualled  very  fully  in  Sis- 
tova  ;  and  if  the  fighting  should  last  a  fortnight  without 
intermission  there  would  still  be  corn  in  Egypt  so  far  as 
we  were  concerned.  A  couple  of  trustworthy  couriers 
had  been  sent  on  from  Bucharest  and  had  accompanied 
the  waggons.  The  plan  of  journalistic  campaign  was  the 
joint  production  of  MacGahan,  Jackson,  and  Villiers,  with 
an  occasional  suggestion  from  myself.  The  two  couriers 
were  to  remain  at  a  certain  straw-stack  on  the  ridge  in 
front  of  Zgalevitza,  equidistant  from  each  Russian  flank. 
There  Mr.  Jackson  ensconced  himself,  with  a  fine  com- 


The  September  Battle  of  Plevna  1 5 1 

manding  view  and  an  excavation  in  the  straw-stack  in 
which  he  spent  his  nights.  Young  Mr.  Salusbury  was 
with  his  friends  the  Roumanians ;  Mr.  Millett,  who  had 
come  from  the  Dobrutscha,  took  charge  along  with  Villiers 
of  the  Russian  left  centre  on  the  Radischevo  ridge,  a  region 
not  new  to  the  latter ;  and  MacGahan  was  to  be  with 
Skobeleff  on  the  extreme  left  at  the  village  of  Brestovatch. 
A  depot  of  supplies  was  to  be  left  by  the  waggons  at  Mr. 
Jackson's  straw-stack  as  they  passed  it  on  the  morning  of 
the  7th,  dropping  the  couriers  at  the  same  place.  Thence 
Villiers'  waggon  was  to  go  forward  and  take  post  in  the 
village  of  Radischevo,  and  MacGahan's  to  proceed  yet 
further  to  the  left  and  station  itself  in  Brestovatch.  I  was 
primarily  to  accompany  MacGahan,  but  my  duty  was  to 
visit  the  other  gentlemen  from  time  to  time,  take  any 
despatches  which  they  might  have  ready,  and  carry  those 
on  to  the  couriers'  station  at  Mr.  Jackson's  straw-stack. 
That  gentleman  despatched  a  courier  every  evening  from 
the  field.  He  had  only  to  travel  to  Simnitza  whence  to 
Bucharest  another  relay  of  couriers  was  established,  and 
he  was  to  be  back  again  at  the  straw-stack  within  twenty- 
four  hours,  so  that  there  was  a  daily  service  between  the 
straw-stack  on  the  field  of  Plevna  and  the  telegraph  wire 
at  Bucharest.  Villiers,  who  was  a  fanciful  young  man, 
maintained  that  the  dispositions  made  were  calculated  to 
elevate  war-correspondence  to  the  dignity  of  a  Fine  Art. 

We  started  for  the  front  so  early  as  3  a.m.  of  the  7th, 
because  MacGahan  was  anxious  to  see  the  first  shot  fired 
from  the  siege  battery,  which  he  had  been  told  would 
occur  at  daybreak.  Riding  forward  in  the  darkness  we 
Struck   on  the  battery  soon  after  four  o'clock.     Here  all 


152  Czar  and  Stdtan 

was  bustle  and  activity ;  but  it  was  wonderful  how  quietly 
the  work  was  gone  about,  the  anxiety  being  that  the 
Turks  over  against  us  in  the  Gravitza  redoubt  should 
not  discover  what  was  being  done.  They  made  no  sign, 
whether  from  ignorance  or  from  indifference  it  was  im- 
possible to  know.  Had  they  been  at  all  on  the  alert,  they 
could  not  well  have  missed  ascertaining  that  during  the 
entire  night  there  were  two  whole  Russian  regiments  in 
the  village  of  Gravitza  down  in  the  intervening  hollow 
only  a  few  hundred  yards  from  the  redoubt,  pushed  out 
there  to  cover  the  construction  of  the  batteries.  Both 
these  had  been  begun  about  9  p.m.,  and  were  finished 
soon  after  midnight,  the  infantry  working  under  the  direc- 
tion of  the  sappers.  The  first  battery,  containing  eight 
guns,  was  built  on  a  spur  distant  from  the  redoubt  4,300 
yards  to  the  south-east;  the  second,  mounting  12  guns, 
was  further  back  and  to  the  left  at  a  range  of  about 
5,200  yards.  The  field  artillery  of  Kriidener's  corps  was 
massed  in  the  folds  of  ground  behind  and  on  either  flank 
of  the  two  siege-batteries,  his  infantry  partly  in  the  first 
line  in  their  front,  partly  on  either  flank  and  in  rear. 
As  the  day  dawned,  we  could  discern  the  positions  of  the 
rest  of  the  Russian  army.  You  have  yourselves  seen  and 
travelled  over  the  ground  about  Plevna ;  and  you  will  also 
remember  that,  when  telling  you  of  the  previous  battle  of 
Plevna  on  July  30th,  I  described  the  amphitheatre  of 
Plevna  as  of  a  horseshoe  shape  with  the  town  of  Plevna 
about  midway  between  the  two  heels,  and  its  rim  formed 
by  a  semicircular  sweep  of  ridge.  Kriidener's  corps  and 
the  siege-batteries  now  occupied  the  section  of  ridge  at 
the  toe  of  the  horseshoe.     The  Roumanians  were  on  the 


The  September  Battle  of  Plevna  153 

northern  upland  behind  and  above  the  Gravitza  redoubt  — 
one  division  due  north  of  it,  another  north-east  of  it,  the 
reserve  division  in  rear  at  the  village  of  Verbitza.  The 
southern  rim  of  the  horseshoe  formed  by  the  long  Radi- 
schevo  ridge,  was  occupied  by  the  4th  Corps,  its  five  bat- 
teries on  the  crest  with  the  infantry  in  the  valley  behind. 
Further  westward  on  the  same  alignment  was  Skobeleff, 
holding  the  ground  on  either  side  of  the  Loftcha  road  in 
front  of  Brestovatz,  having  the  Turkish  redoubts  on  the 
Krishin  Hill  on  his  left  front. 

It  was  clear,  as  soon  as  daylight  enabled  us  to  scan  the 
scene,  that  Osman  had  made  full  use  of  the  five  weeks'  in- 
terval of  non-molestation  accorded  to  him.  From  the  Gra- 
vitza redoubt  along  the  northern  upland  to  Bukova  on  the 
west,  there  was  now  a  great  continuous  shelter-trench 
studded  with  redoubts  and  batteries.  On  the  lower  elevation 
east  of  the  town,  the  redoubts  which  Schahof  skoy  had  taken 
and  abandoned  on  July  30th  were  greatly  enlarged,  and  on 
the  successive  neighbouring  knolls  were  five  or  six  more 
redoubts  forming  a  regular  nest  and  linked  one  to  the  other 
by  lines  of  entrenchment.  There  were  now  defensive 
works  in  rear  of  Plevna  itself,  and  on  the  Krishin  Hill 
south-west  of  it,  on  which  the  Turks  had  not  so  much  as  a 
picket  on  July  30th,  was  now  quite  a  group  of  redoubts 
elaborately  constructed  and  occupying  commanding  posi- 
tions. MacGahan  studied  the  scene  in  front  of  him 
through  his  telescope  for  many  minutes ;  when  he  closed 
it  he  quietly  remarked :  "  The  Gravitza  redoubt  is  no 
longer  the  key  of  the  position.  It  might  fall  to-day  and 
Osman  would  be  but  little  the  weaker.  Yonder,  away  to 
the  south-west,  that  Krishin  Hill  with  its  redoubts — that 


1^4  Czar  and  Stdtan 


is  now  the  key  of  the  position.  That  is  in  Skobeleff's 
country  ;  if  he  had  a  couple  of  army  corps  instead  of  a 
detachment  and  if  he  were  not  killed  in  the  attempt,  I 
believe  he  could  be  in  Plevna  on  the  second  day !  " 

At  six  o'clock  the  first  shot  was  fired  from  the  8-gun 
siege-battery  at  the  Gravitza  redoubt.  The  aim  was  good  ; 
the  shell  fell  into  the  work.  The  scene  was  immediately 
very  comical.  Before  the  shot  not  a  Turk  had  been  visi- 
ble in  or  about  the  redoubt ;  there  was  not  even  a  sentry. 
At  the  sound  of  it  a  few  men  came  up  on  to  the  parapet, 
patently  rubbing  their  eyes  as  we  watched  them  through 
our  glasses.  I  distinctly  saw  one  man  yawn.  They 
stared  around  in  a  curiously  absent  way  —  it  seemed  clear 
that  the  shot  had  been  the  first  intimation  to  them  of  the 
proximity  of  the  Russians.  It  struck  me  that  they  were 
half-thinking  of  going  to  bed  again  when  there  came 
a  second  shot,  and  that  seemed  to  convince  them  that  busi- 
ness was  on  hand. 

But  all  the  same  they  took  things  very  leisurely,  and 
their  guns  did  not  begin  to  answer  the  Russian  artillery 
for  quite  half  an  hour.  The  cannonade  lasted  all  day. 
Twenty  siege-guns  and  88  field-guns  hammered  at  the 
Gravitza  redoubt  without  ceasing.  Clouds  of  dust  rose 
every  few  minutes  from  its  thick  parapet,  proving  the 
accuracy  of  the  Russian  fire  ;  but  little  perceptible  damage 
was  done,  and  the  eight  guns  which  were  the  armament 
of  the  redoubt  answered  leisurely  throughout  the  day. 

Throughout  the  8th  the  bombardment  was  steadily  main- 
tained and  as  steadily  endured.  The  damage  done  by  the 
Russian  fire  to  the  Gravitza  redoubt  had  been  made  good 
overnight,  and  in  the  morning  it  looked  as  trim  as  if  never 


The  Septembei^  Battle  of  Plevna  155 

a  shot  had  struck  it.  The  Russian  siege-batteries  had  been 
brought  forward  under  cover  of  night,  and  now  overhung  the 
Gravitza  village.  It  was  passing  strange  to  look  from  the 
battery  down  into  that  village  in  the  hollow  below  where 
the  villagers,  with  shells  interminably  whistling  over  their 
heads,  were  actually  busy  treading  out  their  barley  on  the 
primitive  threshing-floor  of  hardened  mud,  the  men  tossing 
the  sheaves  about,  the  women  driving  the  ponies  in  their 
endless  round.  I  went  down  into  the  village  on  the  errand 
to  ascertain  how  the  folks  of  Gravitza  and  their  Turk- 
ish neighbours  in  the  redoubt  had  been  getting  along  to- 
gether during  the  term  of  Osman's  occupation  of  Plevna. 
A  Russian  officer  came  along  with  me,  who  told  me  he  had 
heard  that  the  village  had  been  the  scene  of  horrible 
atrocities  committed  by  the  Turks.  He  was  undeceived 
to  some  purpose.  The  head-man  of  the  place,  who  was 
standing  by  the  threshing-floor  in  the  middle  of  the  village, 
told  us  that  the  Turks  had  never  taken  anything  from  his 
people  without  payment  on  the  spot.  The  Russian  officer 
scarcely  liked  what  the  honest  farmer  added,  that  "  he 
would  be  very  well  pleased  if,  when  the  Turks  had  gone 
and  the  Russians  come,  the  Russians  were  to  behave  as 
well  as  the  Turks  had  done." 

The  bombardment  lasted  without  abatement  for  five 
long  days.  During  the  last  three  days  of  that  time  I  was 
mostly  with  MacGahan  in  or  before  Brestovatz  in  Skobe- 
leff's  region ;  and  it  was  only  when  I  rode  from  thence  to 
the  straw-stack  in  front  of  Zgalevitza,  that  I  learned  or 
saw  anything  of  what  was  going  on  in  the  Radischevo  and 
Gravitza  sections  of  the  attack.  I  remember  that  on  my 
way  to  the  straw-stack  in  the  afternoon  of  the  9th  convey- 


156  Czar  and  SiLltan 

ing  MacGahan's  daily  budget  —  the  day  was  the  Sabbath, 
but  there  was  no  Sabbath-keeping  before  Plevna  —  I  saw 
a  spurt  of  Roumanian  infantry  in  the  direction  of  the  Gra- 
vitza  redoubt,  which  was  promptly  crushed  by  a  most 
murderous  rifle-fire  by  its  defenders.  The  Gravitza  had 
almost  entirely  given  up  even  the  pretence  of  replying  to 
the  Russian  artillery  fire,  but  it  could  still  sting  venom- 
ously with  its  small  arms.  Through  the  glass  I  could  dis- 
cern masses  of  the  Turkish  infantrymen  lying  in  the 
hollows  of  the  northern  upland,  having  quitted  the  shell- 
scourged  redoubt  for,  as  I  supposed,  the  sake  of  compara- 
tive safety. 

What  I  witnessed  when  with  Skobeleff  and  MacGahan 
on  the  left  wing  during  the  four  days'  fighting,  I  will  pres- 
ently recount  to  you.  Skobeleff's  fighting  was  a  thing 
altogether  isolated  from  the  rest  of  the  operations,  and  I 
mean  to  finish  the  narrative  of  what  I  casually  saw  of  the 
latter  before  entering  on  the  description  of  the  former. 
Tuesday  the  nth  was  the  Emperor's  fete-day,  and  a  gen- 
eral assault  had  been  ordered  for  three  o'clock  in  the 
afternoon.  The  cannonade  was  to  last  along  the  whole 
line  from  daybreak  until  8  a.m. ;  then  a  pause  until  1 1  ; 
then  a  heavy  fire  until  i  p.m. ;  then  another  pause  until 
2.30  p.m.,  and  then  a  fierce  cannonade  until  3  p.m.,  when 
the  assaults  were  to  begin.  Fog  interfered  with  this  pro- 
gramme, the  intention  of  which  I  never  knew  anybody 
who  understood.  During  the  lulls  in  the  cannonade  the 
Turks  jauntily  came  out  from  behind  the  parapets  of  their 
works  and  strolled  about  the  glacis  with  the  coolest  indif- 
ference. The  fog  lifted  in  the  late  afternoon,  just  as  I 
was  quitting  the  straw-stack  after  having  given  in  to  Jack- 


The  September  Battle  of  Plevna  157 

son  MacGahan's  daily  letter.  Around  the  Gravitza  re- 
doubt a  desperate  fight  was  raging.  The  Roumanians 
had  gone  at  it  in  three  separate  columns  and  all  three  had 
been  repulsed ;  one  could  see  the  dead  and  dying  strewing 
the  grassy  slopes  on  two  sides  of  the  redoubt.  It  was  now 
the  turn  of  a  Russian  brigade  which  had  been  occupy- 
ing the  village  of  Gravitza,  and  which,  by  riding  to  the 
high  ground  overhanging  the  village,  I  could  watch  de- 
ploying to  the  west  of  it  and  then  advancing  on  the 
redoubt  up  the  steep  and  slippery  slope  from  the  bank 
of  the  Gravitza  stream.  Averting  my  eyes  from  the 
slaughter  which  those  staunch  and  gallant  men  were  en- 
during, I  turned  my  head  to  witness  a  spectacle  scarcely 
less  thrilling. 

I  had  known,  although  I  had  never  previously  seen 
him  there,  that  the  Emperor  Alexander  had  been  present 
in  the  field  from  the  first  day  of  this  long  bitter  conflict. 
The  sappers  had  constructed  for  him  on  a  little  eminence 
beyond  the  line  of  fire  a  sort  of  outlook  place  from  which 
was  visible  a  great  sweep  of  the  scene  of  action.  Behind 
it  was  a  marquee  in  which  was  a  long  table  continually 
spread  with  food  and  wine,  where  the  suite  supported 
nature  jovially  while  men  were  dying  hard  by.  As  for 
the  Czar  himself,  men  said  that  after  the  first  two  days  he 
neither  ate  nor  drank ;  that  anxiety  visibly  devoured  him  ; 
and  that  he  could  not  be  restrained  from  leaving  the 
observatory  and  wandering  around  among  the  gunners. 
I  watched  him  now,  on  this  afternoon  of  the  fifth  day  of 
the  colossal  struggle  —  it  was  his  fete-day,  save  the  mark ! 
—  as  he  stood  there  alone  on  the  little  balcony  of  the 
lookout  place  in  the  sullen  autumn  weather,  gazing  out 


1^8  Czar  and  Sultan 

with  haggard  straining  eyes  at  the  efforts  of  the  soldiers 
to  storm  the  Gravitza  redoubt  yonder.  Assault  after 
assault  had  been  made,  and  had  failed  ;  and  now  the  final 
desperate  effort  was  being  made  under  his  eyes,  the  for- 
lorn hope  of  the  day.  The  Turkish  fire  was  smiting  in 
their  faces  his  Russians  as  they  battled  their  way  up  the 
steep  slope  slippery  already  with  Roumanian  blood ;  the 
pale  drawn  face  on  the  balcony  quivered  in  agony  and 
the  tall  figure  winced  and  cowered.  As  he  stood  there  in 
solitary  anguish,  he  was  a  spectacle  of  majestic  misery 
that  I  never  can  forget. 

With  awful  losses  the  battalions  staggered  forward  and 
upward.  At  last  one  battalion  rushed  over  one  of  the 
trenches  on  the  flank  of  the  redoubt.  Aided  by  its  fire, 
another  battalion  charged  the  redoubt  from  the  south  at 
the  same  moment  that  part  of  a  Roumanian  brigade  made 
a  desperate  attempt  on  its  eastern  face.  The  combined 
effort  was  successful,  and  the  redoubt  was  carried  and  its 
garrison  slain  almost  to  a  man.  But  it  turned  out  pres- 
ently that  there  were  now  two  Gravitza  redoubts,  and  it 
was  only  the  original  and  the  weaker  one  that  had  been 
stormed.  From  the  second  redoubt  on  the  higher  ground 
and  from  the  connecting  trenches  the  Turks  maintained 
an  insupportable  fire  on  the  conquerors  of  the  first  re- 
doubt, and  half  an  hour  later  they  delivered  an  assault  and 
swept  out  of  it  Russians  and  Roumanians  alike.  The 
dusk  was  gathering,  through  which  one  could  still  discern 
the  confused  hand-to-hand  fight  that  was  being  furiously 
maintained. 

The  end  darkness  prevented  me  from  seeing ;  but  next 
day  I  was  informed  that   Russian   and   Roumanian  rein- 


The  September  Battle  of  Plevna  159 


forcements  had  fought  their  way  up  again  and  that  the 
redoubt  was  finally  lost  to  the  Turks.  It  was  a  barren 
triumph  while  the  second  and  dominating  redoubt  remained 
in  possession  of  the  Turks,  as  it  did  for  three  months 
longer.  The  trophies  of  the  capture  of  the  Gravitza  were 
five  guns  and  a  flag.  The  interior  of  the  redoubt  and  its 
ditch  were  literally  paved  with  dead  bodies.  How  close 
and  bitter  had  been  the  fighting  may  be  gathered  from 
the  fact  that  the  Roumanians  had  more  men  killed  than 
wounded.  Their  losses  were  56  officers  and  2,500  men; 
the  Russian  losses  were  22  officers  and  1,300  men.  And 
after  all  this  slaughter  the  reduction  of  Plevna  was  no 
nearer  than  before  a  shot  had  been  fired ! 

You  will  remember  that  I  told  you  that  Skobeleff's 
position  was  on  the  extreme  left  of  the  half-circle  held  by 
the  Russo-Roumanian  army.  It  was  in  a  manner  isolated, 
since  the  deep  ravine  of  the  Tutchenitza  brook  separated 
it  from  the  Radischevo  ridge  held  by  the  4th  Corps.  The 
village  of  Brestovatz,  which  was  Skobeleff's  headquarters, 
and  where  MacGahan's  waggon  was  posted  from  the  7th, 
lay  almost  due  south  of  Plevna  on  the  left  of  the  Loftcha 
road.  It  was  not  a  very  pleasant  quarter,  for  on  its  left 
front  behind  the  village  of  Krishin  was  a  Turkish  redoubt, 
shells  from  which  occasionally  fell  in  and  about  Bresto- 
vatz. Directly  in  Skobeleff's  front  and  between  him  and 
Plevna,  there  rose  a  long  rounded  hill  of  considerable 
height  studded  with  trees  which  were  not  dense  enough  to 
be  called  a  wood.  This  elevation  afterwards  came  to  be 
called  the  "  Green  Hill  "  —  I  remember  you  telling  me 
that  when  you  visited  Plevna  the  other  day,  you  had 
climbed  this  hill  and  had  found  skulls  and  skeletons  on 


i6o  Czar  and  Sultan 

its  slopes  lying  there  still  exposed  —  and  you  must  have 
observed  as  you  followed  the  road  over  it  that  there  were 
on  its  summit  three  successive  knolls  with  intervening  de- 
pressions. From  the  .top  of  the  knoll  nearest  Plevna  — 
the  "third  knoll  "  it  was  called  by  Skobeleff  —  a  wooded 
slope  falls  down  into  a  valley  in  which  is  a  little  stream. 
Beyond  this  stream  there  is  a  steep  ascent  to  the  top  of  a 
long  ridge  running  westward  from  the  southern  environs 
of  Plevna.  On  this  ridge  was  a  long  continuous  entrench- 
ment in  the  centre  of  which  was  a  redoubt ;  there  was 
another  at  its  eastern  extremity,  and  a  third  some  distance 
beyond  the  western  termination  of  the  line  of  entrench- 
ment. "If" — said  Skobeleff  to  MacGahan,  as  they 
smoked  together  on  the  evening  of  the  7th  —  "if  I  can 
carry  and  hold  that  entrenchment  and  those  redoubts,  if 
reinforcements  are  sent  to  me  whenever  I  ask  for  them, 
and  if  our  people  keep  threatening  the  Turks  all  round 
the  half-circle  and  on  the  day  of  the  assault  strike  hard  at 
the  given  points,  I  believe  there  is  a  reasonable  chance 
that  this  time  we  may  drive  Osman  out  of  Plevna.  But 
everything  turns  on  combination  and  co-operation  ;  and 
these,  as  you  must  know  by  this  time,  are  not  our  forte." 
On  the  afternoon  of  the  8th  Skobeleff  began  to  take 
ground  to  his  front.  The  advance  was  led  by  dragoons 
in  skirmishing  order  with  whom  Skobeleff  himself  rode. 
Five  battalions  of  infantry  followed,  which  we  accompa- 
nied, MacGahan  on  his  pony,  I  on  foot.  The  Turkish 
pickets  among  the  trees  on  the  first  knoll  fell  back  firing 
and  joined  the  force  holding  the  second  knoll.  There  was 
some  hard  fighting  before  the  latter  was  evacuated ;  but 
the  Turks    abandoned  it   and  also,   after   a  struggle,  the 


The  September  Battle  of  Plevna  i6i 

third  knoll,  where  Skobeleff  was  within  a  short  mile  of 
Plevna.  He  still  went  forward,  sending  his  men  down  the 
wooded  slope  in  loose  order.  The  Turks  obstinately  hung 
in  the  intervening  valley,  firing  steadily  and  covered  by 
the  shell-fire  from  the  redoubts  behind ;  but  the  Russians 
pressed  on,  and  from  the  knoll  we  could  see  hundreds  of 
Turkish  soldiers  retreating  up  the  smooth  slope  towards 
the  redoubt,  other  groups  going  away  to  their  left  into 
Plevna.  The  Russians,  whose  skirmish  line  had  reached 
the  bottom  of  the  valley,  held  on  staunchly  in  the  face  of 
a  bitter  fire  of  artillery  and  musketry  from  the  central 
redoubt  and  its  flanking  trenches ;  but  they  could  not 
advance  and  were  gradually  withdrawn,  followed  very 
promptly  by  the  Turks  to  the  second  knoll  and  later  to 
the  first,  where  entrenchments  were  immediately  thrown 
up  by  the  Russians.  The  wisdom  of  this  precaution  was 
proved  on  the  following  morning,  when  the  Turks  attacked 
twice  in  great  strength ;  the  later  attempt  came  within  60 
yards  of  the  trenches  and  was  repulsed  by  case-shot. 
They  retreated  to  the  second  knoll,  Skobeleff  remaining 
on  the  first  throughout  the  9th,  the  day  of  the  general 
assault  having  been  postponed. 

As  you  know,  it  was  finally  ordered  for  the  nth  and  on 
the  lOth  he  began  his  preparations.  He  had  a  curious  set 
of  men  serving  him  as  staff  officers.  In  the  rest  of  the 
army  they  went  by  the  name  of  "the  blackguards,"  and 
Skobeleff  himself  owned  that  they  deserved  the  appella- 
tion. But  they  suited  him  —  he  required  of  them  only 
two  things,  absolute  obedience  to  his  orders  and  indomi- 
table bravery.  Fulfilling  these  requisites  they  met  his 
needs  ;  he  did  not  in  the  least  mind  that  they  were  ruffians 


1 62  Czar  and  Sultan 

and  blackguards.  He  associated  with  them  scarcely  at  all 
except  in  the  field ;  when  he  had  a  quiet  hour  he  spent  it 
with  MacGahan.  But  before  Plevna  he  had  very  few 
quiet  hours.  He  was  never  satisfied  until  he  had  seen 
actually  carried  out  every  instruction  which  he  had  given. 
At  daylight  on  the  loth  he  recovered  the  second  knoll, 
and  stood  over  his  men  while  they  fortified  the  position 
by  throwing  up  shelter-trenches  with  their  copper  soup- 
dishes,  bayonets,  and  naked  hands — no  entrenching  tools 
being  available.  By  the  afternoon  he  had  two  batteries 
there  with  a  couple  of  regiments,  and  in  rear  a  reserve  of 
two  more  regiments  and  two  rifle  battalions.  He  posted 
two  batteries  eastward  of  the  Tutchenitza  brook,  whence 
they  could  enfilade  the  crest  of  the  third  knoll.  Then  he 
came  back  into  Brestovatz  and  spent  the  evening  talking 
with  MacGahan  over  Balzac's  novels,  as  much  engrossed 
as  if  there  was  no  such  place  as  Plevna  in  the  world.  I 
sat  in  a  corner  of  the  hovel,  wondering  and  admiring. 

On  the  morning  of  the  nth  the  whole  region  was  en- 
veloped in  a  dense  fog  in  which  objects  were  invisible 
at  a  distance  of  half-a-dozen  yards.  It  lifted  somewhat 
towards  lO  a.m.,  when  Skobeleff  began  to  move  his 
advance  forward  to  the  third  knoll,  since  from  there  his 
assault  on  the  redoubts  in  his  front  could  be  more 
promptly  begun  when  the  specified  hour  for  the  general 
attack  should  come.  Before  the  third  knoll  was  in  his 
possession  there  occurred  a  sharp  skirmish  of  some  dura- 
tion, during  which  the  fog  lifted  and  showed  us  a  stirring 
spectacle.  About  a  mile  south-east  of  Plevna,  its  front 
directly  facing  the  left  section  of  the  Radischevo  ridge, 
the  Turks  had  a  very  formidable  redoubt  on  the  summit 


The  September  Battle  of  Plevna  163 

of  an  isolated  mamelon  with  two  long  entrenchments  on 
either  flank.  This  redoubt,  which  we  afterwards  knew 
as  "No.  10,"  you  probably  saw  when  you  visited  Plevna. 
Stimulated  possibly  by  the  sound  of  Skobeleff's  skirmish 
although  his  fire  was  not  in  the  direction  or  within  range 
of  "  No.  10,"  the  Turks  in  and  about  that  redoubt  ad- 
vanced to  attack  a  Russian  regiment  on  the  extreme  left 
of  the  Radischevo  ridge.  They  were  repulsed.  But  then 
the  Russian  regiment,  in  ignorance  or  disregard  of  the 
general  plan  of  assault  and  without  the  order  of  the 
division  commander,  followed  up  the  retreating  Turks ; 
and  when  it  became  hotly  engaged  an  adjacent  regiment 
went  forward  in  support.  The  two  carried  one  line  of 
entrenchment,  but  were  dreadfully  punished  in  front  and 
flank  from  the  redoubt  and  had  to  fall  back  into  their 
previous  positions.  Their  adventure  cost  them  dear  ;  one 
regiment  lost  one-half  of  its  men  and  two-thirds  of  its 
officers  and  so  was  practically  out  of  the  fight  for  the 
day.  We  watched  with  horror  the  rush  from  entrench- 
ments and  redoubt  of  the  Turkish  irregulars  hurrying  to 
the  butchery  of  the  wounded  Russians  who  lay  so  thick 
on  the  steep  bare  slopes  of  the  mamelon.  Through  the 
glass  one  could  discern  the  glint  of  the  long  knives 
brandished  over  prostrate  forms  and  the  upraised  arms 
of  the  wounded  appealing  in  vain  for  mercy.  The  fog 
closed  down  like  a  curtain  on  the  scene  of  slaughter ; 
but  it  lifted  again  for  a  time  about  noon  and  then  it  could 
be  seen  at  a  glance  how  critical  was  Skobeleff's  position. 
He  had  to  maintain  a  front  of  fire  on  the  crest  of  the 
third  knoll  to  prevent  the  Turks  from  assailing  him,  but 
he  was  being   punished  by  shell-fire   from   the  redoubts 


164  Czar  and  Sultan 


before  him ;  while  his  troops  lying  down  on  the  rearward 
slope,  although  covered  from  that  fire,  were  exposed  to 
an  enfilading  fire  from  the  Krishin  redoubt  on  their  left 
flank. 

Special  permission  was  given  to  Skobeleff  at  his  urgent 
request,  that  he  might  begin  his  assault  so  early  as  i 
p.m. ;  and  he  promptly  acted.  He  had  at  his  disposal 
six  line  regiments,  four  rifle  battalions,  and  24  guns ; 
in  all  about  17,000  men.  His  first  line,  on  the  third 
knoll,  consisted  of  two  regiments  with  two  rifle  battal- 
ions in  support ;  between  the  third  and  second  knoll 
one  regiment ;  on  the  second  knoll  in  the  fortified  posi- 
tion two  weak  regiments  with  three  batteries ;  and  in 
reserve  one  regiment  and  two  rifle  battalions. 

When  his  guns  had  been  in  action  for  half  an  hour  he 
sent  his  first  line  forward  to  the  assault,  covered  by  the  fire 
of  his  artillery.  Preceded  by  a  strong  line  of  skirmishers 
the  regiments  went  down  the  slope  in  company  columns, 
with  banners  flying  and  bands  playing.  Skobeleff  had 
ordered  all  but  the  skirmishers  to  hold  their  fire  until  near 
the  redoubt,  then  to  fire  one  volley  and  storm  with  the 
bayonet.  The  Turks  were  cleared  out  of  their  rifle-pits  at 
the  foot  of  the  slope,  the  little  stream  was  crossed,  and  the 
ascent  was  begun  towards  the  Turkish  work.  Met  by  sheer 
avalanches  of  lead  which  only  the  most  devoted  among 
them  could  face,  the  soldiers  began  to  lie  down  and 
took  to  firing  on  the  Turkish  trenches  up  yonder  above 
them  at  a  distance  of  some  200  yards.  "  The  beginning 
of  the  end!"  MacGahan  muttered,  as  we  lay  together 
looking  down  into  the  hell  of  fog  and  smoke  and  blood,  — 
"when  they  begin  to  hang  like  that  there's  not  much  more 


THE    ASSAULT    ON    THE    MAMELON    REDOUBT. 


TJie  September  Battle  of  Plevna  165 

to  be  said  !  "  While  he  spoke,  we  were  trampled  upon  as 
we  lay  by  a  whole  company  column.  We  rose  to  our  feet 
and  became  aware  that  a  fresh  wave  of  men,  a  whole  regi- 
ment, was  pouring  down  the  slope  in  our  front.  Skobeleff, 
his  finger  on  each  throb  of  the  pulse  of  battle,  had  discerned 
the  symptoms  of  wavering  in  his  first  line.  He  caught 
the  moment  and  swept  forward  to  invigorate  his  front  the 
troops  which  he  had  been  holding  in  his  hand  on  the 
reverse  slope.  And  yonder  behind  were  more  supports, 
hurrying  up  to  wait  on  the  reverse  slope  the  word  from  the 
chief  who  read  so  clearly  the  open  page  of  the  battle-field. 
The  arrival  of  supports  stimulated  to  fresh  action  the  men 
who  had  been  enduring  but  not  progressing,  and  the  loose 
line  drifted  some  paces  up  the  slope ;  but  the  strain  of  the 
effort  was  too  great,  and  the  men  lay  down  again  and 
renewed  their  fire.  Clearly  this  situation  could  not  last. 
The  redoubt  must  be  taken  without  delay,  or  the  attempt 
to  take  it  must  be  forthwith  abandoned.  The  critical 
moment  had  come.  Skobeleff  had  already  sent  forward 
his  two  reserve  rifle  battalions,  and  now  only  waited  until 
his  reserve  line  regiment  had  deployed  on  the  third  knoll 
and  was  hurrying  down  the  slope  beyond.  He  was  wear- 
ing a  white  frock-coat  with  all  his  decorations,  as  was  his 
invariable  custom  on  a  day  of  battle.  "  Good-bye,  Mac- 
Gahan  !  "  he  shouted  as  he  mounted  a  white  charger.  — 
"Wish  me  good  fortune,  old  friend!"  "God  bless  you, 
Skobeleff !  "  was  MacGahan's  fervent  response.  The  tall 
white  figure  on  the  white  horse  dashed  at  speed  down  the 
slope,  passed  the  hurrying  linesmen  who  gave  their  loved 
chief  a  great  cheer  as  he  sped  by  them,  caught  up  the  rifle- 
men and    swept   them  forward    at   the    double.     As    the 


1 66  Czar  and  Snltan 

volley  of  cheering  reached  the  prostrate  advance,  the 
men  sprang  to  their  feet  and  rapturously  hailed  the 
white-clad  leader  who  dashed  to  the  front  blazing  like 
a  meteor.  He  reached  the  wavering  fluctuating  mass  and 
imparted  to  it  the  inspiration  of  his  own  ardour  and  dar- 
ing. The  enthusiasm  reached  fever  heat,  there  was  a 
final  rush  up  the  slope ;  the  white  horse  went  down,  but 
the  rider  was  up  in  a  moment.  A  torrent  of  men,  headed 
ever  by  the  conspicuous  figure  in  white,  swept  over  and 
into  the  Turkish  entrenchments.  There  were  a  few  min- 
utes of  desperate  melee ;  then  the  Turks  gave  ground  and 
the  Russians,  turning  to  their  left,  swarmed  into  the  mid- 
dle redoubt.  It  was  a  mass  of  flame  and  smoke  from 
out  which  reached  us  a  blood-curdling  medley  of  shouts, 
screams,  and  cries  of  agony  and  defiance,  that  actually 
rose  above  the  deep-mouthed  bellowing  of  the  cannon 
and  the  steady  awful  crash  of  the  deadly  rifle-fire. 

It  was  three  o'clock.  As  he  lay  looking  down  on  the  strife 
MacGahan  had  been  writing  hard  in  pencil,  tearing  sheet 
after  sheet  from  his  note-book  and  cramming  them  into 
an  envelope.  "  Not  a  moment  to  spare,  Carnegie !  "  he 
exclaimed,  more  excited  than  I  had  ever  seen  him  —  "  this 
is  the  latest  intelligence  with  a  vengeance.  You'll  find  my 
pony  down  in  the  hollow.  You're  a  light  weight  and  he 
can  gallop  —  he  is  quite  fresh.  If  you  are  at  the  straw- 
stack  within  an  hour,  you  will  catch  the  courier  to  Bucha- 
rest.    Off,  my  son,  and  ride  h — 11  for  leather !  " 

It  was  a  rough  road,  but  the  little  horse  was  game. 
Schnidnikoff's  afternoon  assault  from  the  western  end  of 
the  Radischevo  ridge  on  the  Turkish  redoubt  "No.  lo" 
was  in  full  blast  as  I  galloped  by,  and  the  Turkish  shells 


The  September  Battle  of  Plevna  167 

were  dropping  thick  and  fast  on  and  about  the  road  which 
I  traversed.  Passing  Radischevo,  I  shouted  to  General 
Zotoff  without  drawing  rein  that  Skobeleff  had  carried 
the  Turkish  redoubt  on  the  western  verge  of  Plevna.  A 
hurrah  from  him  and  his  staff  followed  me ;  half  an  hour 
later  I  was  telling  the  news  to  Jackson  as  he  sat  in  the 
mouth  of  his  straw  cavern,  and  in  five  minutes  more  I  saw 
the  courier  ride  away  for  Bucharest  with  MacGahan's 
matter  in  his  wallet.  It  was  then  that  I  took  the  liberty 
of  spending  a  couple  of  hours  in  watching  the  assaults  on 
the  Gravitza  redoubt  of  which  I  have  already  given  you 
a  short  account.  Jackson  gave  me  some  tea,  brown  bread, 
and  German  sausage,  and  I  had  a  slow  ride  in  the  dark- 
ness back  to  the  spot  where  I  had  left  MacGahan  at  three 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon.  At  nine  in  the  evening  he  was 
just  where  I  had  quitted  him. 

"Skobeleff  has  been  here,"  he  told  me,  "and  has  only 
just  gone  back  to  the  second  knoll.  He  hasn't  a  scratch, 
although  his  white  coat  is  both  bloody  and  muddy.  His 
horse  —  it  is  his  last  white  one  —  was  shot  dead  just  on  the 
lip  of  the  ditch.  He  has  only  got  a  sword-hilt  with  a  mere 
stump  of  blade  —  a  bullet  cut  away  the  rest  of  it  just  as 
he  reached  the  parapet.  Every  man  of  his  staff  is  either 
killed  or  wounded  except  that  truculent  war-dog  Kuro- 
patkin."  I  should  tell  you,  perhaps,  that  Kuropatkin, 
who  in  the  war-time  was  Skobeleff's  chief  of  staff,  is  now  a 
prince,  no  less.  Recently  he  has  been  Governor-General 
of  Central  Asia,  and  I  think  he  is  now  the  Russian  War 
Minister.  "Skobeleff  says,"  continued  MacGahan,  "that 
neither  of  the  two  redoubts  in  this  Turkish  line  of  en- 
trenchment—  the  middle  one  which  was  first  taken,  and 


1 68  Czar  and  Sultan 


the  eastern  one  close  to  Plevna  —  is  properly  speaking 
a  redoubt  at  all,  since  both  are  enclosed  only  on  three 
sides,  the  fourth  side,  that  to  the  rear,  being  quite  open, 
so  that  both  are  exposed  to  the  fire  from  the  trench 
of  the  Turkish  camp  600  yards  rearward.  The  ground  it 
seems  is  hard  and  rocky,  and  without  spades  there  are 
no  means  for  closing  the  rear  face  of  either  redoubt. 
The  first  attempt  from  the  middle  redoubt  to  carry  the 
eastward  one  failed,  and  nearly  all  the  assailants  perished. 
It  was  finally  taken  near  sundown  by  some  reinforcements 
which  Colonel  Shestakoff  of  Imeretinsky's  staff  brought  up. 
Kuropatkin  has  been  fighting  desperately  against  a  sortie 
from  the  redoubt  on  the  Turkish  right  beyond  the  en- 
trenchment, and  has  beaten  it  back.  But  Skobeleff  recog- 
nises how  precarious  is  his  position,  threatened  as  it  is  on 
both  flanks  and  on  both  his  right  and  left  rear.  He  is 
short  of  troops  to  keep  open  his  communications,  with 
only  four  weak  battalions  protecting  the  guns  in  the  for- 
tified position  on  the  second  knoll.  His  men  are  utterly 
exhausted,  he  told  me,  and  his  ammunition  is  falling  short. 
He  has  written  to  Zotoff  explaining  his  condition,  point- 
ing out  that  it  is  untenable  unless  he  is  strongly  reinforced, 
but  adding  that  he  will  hold  on  as  long  as  he  can." 

We  went  back  for  the  night  into  the  fortified  position 
on  the  second  knoll,  where  there  was  something  to  eat. 
Skobeleff  was  attacked  several  times  during  the  night. 
On  the  morning  of  the  12th  he  came  back  to  the  second 
knoll  for  some  guns  to  be  placed  in  one  of  the  captured 
redoubts.  He  told  MacGahan  that  Zotoff  had  sent  him 
orders  to  fortify  his  position  and  hold  out  to  the  last 
extremity,  and  that  to  his  request  for  support  the  reply 


The  September  Battle  of  Plevna  169 

was:  "We  can  send  you  no  reinforcements,  for  we  have 
none."  Skobeleff  returned  to  his  redoubt  just  in  time  to 
meet  another  furious  attack :  it  was  repulsed  ;  but  the 
men,  wearied  and  discouraged  after  long  and  hard  fight- 
ing, had  begun  to  trickle  towards  the  rear.  His  position 
was  gradually  becoming  altogether  desperate.  Every- 
where else  quietude  reigned,  and  Osman  could  thus  afford 
to  use  very  strong  forces  against  Skobeleff,  now  his  only 
active  antagonist.  Attempts  in  great  force  were  made  to 
surround  him  entirely,  the  guns  in  the  redoubt  had  been 
dismounted  and  all  the  gunners  and  teams  killed.  An 
ammunition  waggon  exploded  by  a  Turkish  shell  burst 
in  the  midst  of  a  mass  of  men,  causing  fearful  loss  and 
shaking  the  nerves  of  those  who  remained  unhurt.  Con- 
tinuous assaults  were  made  and  repulsed  throughout  the 
day.  The  Turks  were  threatening  yet  another  assault 
when  the  Russian  occupants  of  the  middle  redoubt,  worn 
out  with  continual  fighting,  began  to  quit  it  in  an  inter- 
mittent stream.  But  the  assailants  did  not  find  it  empty  ; 
there  still  remained  as  its  garrison  some  200  men  under 
Major  Gortaloff,  who  fought  it  out  to  the  bitter  end  and 
died  to  the  last  man  in  a  fierce  hand-to-hand  fight. 

In  the  eastern  redoubt  and  the  connecting  trenches 
there  were  still  Russian  soldiers  who  stubbornly  main- 
tained the  fight.  But  their  fate  was  imminent  had  they 
remained,  and  Skobeleff  brought  them  off,  covering  the 
retreat  by  a  regiment  which  had  been  sent  him  from  the 
4th  Corps,  the  only  reinforcement  received  by  him  during 
the  two  days  of  fighting  and  bloodshed.  The  Turks  fired 
heavily  on  the  retreating  Russians,  who  nevertheless  ad- 
hered  to   their   close  formation ;    they  were  reluctant  to 


170  Czar  and  S^iltau 

betake  themselves  to  the  extended  order.  Shoulder  to 
shoulder  they  came  back  firmly  and  resolutely,  disdaining 
to  take  a  panic.  But  for  the  blood  on  hands,  faces,  and 
clothes,  but  for  the  many  wounded  in  that  mass  of  slowly- 
moving  soldiers  who  were  carried  by  their  comrades  on 
crossed  rifles  or  painfully  dragged  themselves  along  lean- 
ing for  support  on  their  weapons,  one  might  have  sup- 
posed this  to  be  a  body  of  fresh  troops  marching  quietly 
along  in  the  ordinary  conditions  of  a  campaign.  They 
even  kept  their  distances,  those  remnants  of  heroic  regi- 
ments emerging  from  a  fierce  battle  of  thirty  hours'  dura- 
tion. Their  strained  countenances,  their  eyes  ablaze  with 
feverish  brightness,  alone  betrayed  the  agitation  of  those 
steadfast  defenders  of  the  redoubt.  Their  torn  flags 
drooped  over  their  silent  ranks.  A  few  Turkish  stand- 
ards surmounted  by  gilded  crescents  unfolded  their  dra- 
pery blazoned  with  the  name  of  "  Allah,"  and  testified 
eloquently  that  the  soldiers  bearing  them  were  bringing 
back  trophies  of  a  defeat  as  glorious  as  victory  would  have 
been.  They  had  not  only  preserved  their  own  colours, 
they  had  also  taken  spoil  from  their  enemy.  It  was  a 
proud  yet  melancholy  sight. 

From  the  third  knoll  the  retirement  was  continued  to 
the  second,  but  notwithstanding  the  protection  afforded 
by  the  guns  in  the  latter  position,  a  stand  could  not  be 
maintained  there,  and  Skobeleff  retired  his  shattered  force 
to  the  first  knoll,  where  we  met  him.  For  myself  I  thought 
for  the  moment  that  his  mind  had  given  way,  so  frenzied 
was  his  aspect.  MacGahan  drew  a  wonderful  picture  of 
him  in  his  letter  to  the  Daily  Ncivs.  "  Late  in  the  after- 
noon," he  wrote,  "I  met  General  Skobeleff,  for  the  first 


The  September  Battle  of  Plevna  171 


time  since  morning.  He  was  in  a  fearful  state  of  excite- 
ment and  fury.  His  uniform  was  covered  with  blood, 
mud,  and  filth  ;  his  sword  broken ;  his  Cross  of  St.  George 
twisted  round  over  his  shoulder ;  his  face  black  with  pow- 
der and  smoke  ;  his  eyes  haggard  and  bloodshot,  and  his 
voice  quite  gone.  I  never  saw  such  a  picture  of  battle  as 
he  presented."  MacGahan  and  I  visited  him  in  his  tent 
the  same  night.  By  this  time  he  was  quite  calm  and  col- 
lected. He  said  in  a  low  quiet  voice :  "  I  have  done  my 
best ;  I  could  do  no  more.  My  detachment  is  half  de- 
stroyed ;  my  regiments  no  longer  exist ;  I  have  no  officers 
left ;  they  sent  me  no  reinforcements ;  and  I  have  lost 
three  guns!  "  These  were  three  of  the  four  guns  he  had 
brought  forward  into  the  middle  redoubt  soon  after  taking 
it,  only  one  of  which  his  retreating  troops  had  been  able 
to  carry  off.  "Why  did  they  refuse  you  reinforcements  .-'  " 
asked  MacGahan  —  "Who  was  to  blame  for  that.''" 

"I  blame  nobody,"  replied  Skobeleff — "It  was  the 
will  of  God ! "  he  solemnly  said  as  he  crossed  himself. 
Ever  after  that  night  Skobeleff,  it  seemed  to  me,  was  a 
changed  man.  He  was  much  more  grave,  and  made  it 
manifest  in  many  ways  that  he  was  conscious  of  having 
a  greatly  increased  weight  and  responsibility.  Almost 
immediately  after  the  fighting  before  Plevna  came  to  an 
end,  he  was  promoted  by  Imperial  decree  to  the  rank  of 
Lieutenant-General,  and  appointed  to  the  command  of  the 
1 6th  Division  which  had  fought  under  him  so  gallantly 
and  steadfastly  at  Loftcha  and  now  at  Plevna.  Skobeleff's 
reckless  courage,  brilliant  and  magnificent  as  it  was,  may 
be  regarded  as  quixotic  and  out  of  place  on  the  part  of 
one  who  was  the   commanding  officer   of  a    large   force 


172  Czar  and  Sultan 

engaged  in  an  extremely  important  undertaking.  On  the 
other  hand  it  is  certain  that  the  example  he  delighted  in 
showing  to  his  troops  inspired  his  men  with  an  ardour 
without  which  the  Turkish  positions  assailed  could  neither 
have  been  carried  nor  maintained  ;  and  the  legendary  stories 
of  Skobeleff's  all  but  fabulous  bravery  which  circulated 
among  the  rank  and  file,  especially  among  the  young 
reservists  who  kept  arriving  from  Russia  to  restore  the 
thinned  ranks,  constituted  a  positive  military  factor  which 
had  its  results  in  the  subsequent  enterprises  of  Skobeleff, 
such  as  the  assault  of  the  "  Green  Hill "  in  November, 
and  the  storm  of  the  Shenova  redoubts  in  January,  1878, 
which  compelled  the  surrender  of  the  whole  Turkish  army 
of  Schipka. 

Except  for  the  unfortunates  who  fell  in  the  latest  fight- 
ing in  front  of  the  redoubts,  Skobeleff  had  been  successful 
in  carrying  off  nearly  all  of  his  wounded ;  his  dead  of 
course  he  had  to  leave  unburied  where  they  had  fallen. 
His  losses,  as  reckoned  on  the  evening  of  the  13th  when 
his  force  had  been  withdrawn  to  Bogot,  amounted  to  160 
officers  and  over  8,000  men,  nearly  one-half  of  the  whole 
command.  The  Russian  batteries  all  round  the  front 
maintained  a  heavy  bombardment  on  Plevna  and  the 
Turkish  positions  during  the  13th,  14th,  and  15th — a 
mere  waste  of  powder  and  shot.  The  last  actual  fighting 
occurred  in  the  late  evening  of  the  14th,  when  the  Turks 
from  the  second  Gravitza  redoubt  made  a  furious  assault 
on  the  first,  which  was  repulsed  by  the  Russians  and 
Roumanians  holding  the  latter.  The  Russian  losses  in 
this  futile  and  final  assault  on  Plevna  were  stupendous. 
From  the  7th  to  the   14th  September,  both  days  included, 


The  September  Battle  of  Plevna  173 

they  reached  the  ghastly  total  of  18,600.  How  close  and 
desperate  had  been  the  fighting  was  proved  by  the  ab- 
normal and  perhaps  indeed  unique  proportion  of  the 
killed,  of  whom  there  were  more  than  7,600,  a  proportion 
of  one  killed  to  two  and  a  half  wounded ;  the  usual  aver- 
age in  modern  warfare  being,  I  have  read,  one  killed  to 
four  wounded.  This  disproportion  of  killed  to  wounded 
in  the  Plevna  fighting  was  chiefly  owing  to  the  blood- 
thirsty butchery  by  the  Turks  of  the  Russian  wounded 
whom  the  stretcher-bearers  could  not  reach,  and  who  were 
too  hard  hit  to  escape  from  the  cruel  fate  which  awaited 
them  as  they  lay  helpless  at  the  hands  of  the  Turkish 
irregulars. 

After  the  war  I  read  a  history  of  it  written  from  official 
sources  by  Captain  Greene,  the  United  States  military 
attach^,  who  made  the  campaign  from  beginning  to  end. 
His  conclusion  was  "  that  the  Russians  were  defeated  at 
Plevna,  not  because  the  Turkish  position  was  impreg- 
nable, nor  because  they  did  not  have  sufficient  forces ; 
but  because  of  their  ignorance  of  the  enemy's  positions, 
and  of  their  failure  to  concentrate  their  efforts  on  the 
decisive  points."  MacGahan  was  still  more  terse.  "  The 
whole  business,"  according  to  him,  "  was  one  stupid,  blind, 
reckless  muddle,  relieved  only  by  Skobeleff's  skill  and 
daring." 


CHAPTER   IX 


THE    SIEGE    OF    PLEVNA 


PLEVNA,  from  July  20th  to  September  14th,  had  cost 
the  Russians  well  on  to  40,000  men,  besides  having 
caused  the  paralysis  of  their  campaign.  Osman  was 
stronger  than  ever ;  his  only  loss,  that  of  the  Gravitza 
redoubt,  was  nullified  by  the  precaution  he  had  taken  of 
constructing  a  second  Gravitza  redoubt  which  commanded 
the  one  which  the  Russians  and  Roumanians  had  taken 
with  heavy  but  bootless  sacrifices.  "  What  next  ? "  was 
the  question  throughout  the  Russian  army.  They  are  a 
dogged  race,  those  Russians,  and  no  reverses  daunt  them. 
Most  of  the  foreign  correspondents  made  no  secret  of 
their  belief  that  the  war  was  now  as  good  as  finished,  and 
that  the  Russians  would  have  recrossed  the  Danube  by 
the  end  of  the  month.  But  among  the  Russians  them- 
selves, from  the  private  soldier  up  to  the  Czar,  there  was 
no  thought  of  that  nature.  It  is  true  that  the  enthusiasm 
had  temporarily  died  out,  that  every  one  —  even  Skobeleff 
himself,  to  whom  war  was  as  the  breath  of  his  nostrils  — 
frankly  professed  to  be  dead  tired  of  the  business,  and 
that,  especially,  among  the  soldiers,  home-sickness  was 
all  but  universal.  But  that  was  merely  a  sentiment ; 
there  was  no  falter  in  the  conviction  that  Plevna  had  to 
be  taken  somehow  or  other  and  the  war  carried  through 
to  a  successful  issue. 

174 


The  Siege  of  Plevna  175 

From  the  straw-stack  which  I  have  often  spoken  of  as 
the  correspondents'  rendezvous  in  the  field,  we  could  see 
no  little  commotion  about  the  Emperor's  observatory  a 
little  way  on  our  right,  on  the  afternoons  of  the  13th  and 
14th.  The  Emperor  himself  and  his  brother  the  Grand 
Duke  Nicholas  had  long  talks  by  themselves,  a  little  way 
apart ;  Miliutin  the  War  Minister  hung  about ;  Prince 
Charles  of  Roumania  and  General  Zotoff,  the  titular 
chief  of  staff  to  his  Highness,  rode  up  together;  podgy 
old  Nepokoitschitsky  and  his  ally  Levitsky,  the  sous  chef 
of  the  headquarters  staff,  arrived  in  a  carriage  —  no  man 
ever  saw  either  of  these  two  officers  on  horseback.  At 
a  signal  all  entered  the  marquee  behind  the  Emperor's 
gazebo,  where  long  councils  were  held  under  the  presi- 
dency, we  heard,  of  the  Emperor  himself.  The  old  axiom 
held  good  that  councils  of  war  never  fight ;  and  it  pres- 
ently became  known  as  the  policy  decided  on,  that  Plevna 
was  to  be  assaulted  no  more  but  was  to  be  invested  as 
soon  as  sufficient  reinforcements  for  that  purpose  should 
arrive ;  and  that  General  Todleben  the  famous  defender 
of  Sevastopol  was  to  be  called  into  the  field  to  take 
charge  of  the  investment  operations.  Meanwhile  the 
Roumanians  were  to  do  their  best  to  sap  up  to  the  second 
Gravitza  redoubt ;  and  the  whole  Russian  cavalry  under 
General  Kriloff  was  to  move  westward  across  the  Vid, 
in  order  to  cut  off  the  communications  of  the  Turks  and 
if  possible  prevent  the  entry  into  Plevna  of  supplies,  mu- 
nitions, or  reinforcements.  Elsewhere  than  about  Plevna 
everything  was  to  remain  on  the  defensive  for  the  time, 
no  provocation  being  offered  to  the  enemy. 

The  Emperor  moved  his  quarters  forward  to  Poradim, 


1 76  Czar  and  Sultan 

where  he  remained  until  the  fall  of  Plevna  ;  the  Grand 
Duke  Nicholas  and  his  staff  occupied  the  village  of  Bogot, 
a  couple  of  miles  in  rear  of  the  Radischevo  ridge. 

Villiers  I  had  seen  only  occasionally  during  the  days  of 
fighting ;  he  had  been  with  the  4th  Corps  in  the  Radi- 
schevo section  of  the  field,  where  for  a  good  deal  of  the 
time  his  companion  had  been  Colonel  Wellesley.  On  the 
morning  of  the  12th  curiosity  had  led  these  two  to  make 
a  very  reckless  excursion,  which  some  Russian  officers 
who  were  spectators  of  it  frankly  called  "sheer  madness." 
They  had  determined  to  visit  the  Gravitza  redoubt,  which 
had  been  taken  on  the  previous  evening.  "  I  thought 
it  would  make  a  good  sketch,"  was  Villiers'  ingenuous 
explanation  of  the  foolhardy  proceeding.  With  some 
pressure,  for  I  believe  he  was  ashamed  of  his  folly,  I  got 
him  to  relate  his  experiences,  which  I  think  you  will  con- 
sider worth  hearing  :  — 

"  From  the  Russian  siege-battery  we  descended  the 
slope  into  the  valley,  crossed  it,  and  made  our  way  into 
the  village  of  Gravitza  just  beyond  the  little  stream. 
Every  house  in  the  village  was  crammed  with  wounded, 
and  its  street  was  full  of  ambulance  waggons  and  stretcher- 
bearers.  In  rear  of  the  village  and  also  lying  down  on 
the  slope  of  the  hill,  was  a  line  of  Roumanian  infantry 
under  cover  of  a  continuous  shelter-trench ;  in  rear  again 
of  which  was  a  reserve  of  field-batteries.  On  mounting 
the  plateau  above  the  village  we  presently  found  ourselves 
under  cover  of  a  transverse  undulation  running  down  from 
the  height  into  the  valley,  and  sheltered  behind  it  from 
the  fire  from  the  Turkish  entrenchments  were  massed  a 
few  Roumanian  battalions  with  a  battery  or  two,  the  ad- 


The  Siege  of  Plevna  1 7  7 


vance    of  the  reserves  intended  to  support  an  attack  on 
the  Turkish  entrenched  camp. 

"  We  were  here  told  that  it  would  be  impossible  to  ride 
up  to  the  redoubt,  for  as  soon  as  we  should  leave  the 
cover  afforded  by  the  hillock  we  should  come  on  an  open 
space  between  it  and  the  redoubt,  which  interval  was  con- 
tinually swept  by  two  Turkish  guns.  Intent  on  persever- 
ing, we  observed  a  short  way  off  a  ditch  running  up  the 
hill  in  the  direction  of  the  redoubt.  This  we  determined 
to  utilise  as  far  as  it  reached,  and  leaving  our  horses  with 
the  friendly  Roumanians  we  began  to  move  up  along  the 
ditch,  which  we  found  filled  with  Roumanian  infantry. 
After  wandering  about  we  presently  found  that  the  ditch 
soon  ended  in  a  cul-de-sac.  Between  us  and  the  redoubt, 
a  distance  of  about  600  yards,  there  was  about  half-way 
a  small  Roumanian  battery,  and  for  this  we  ran  at  speed, 
the  ground  we  traversed  literally  strewn  with  dead  Rou- 
manians and  Russians.  The  Turkish  fire  seemed  to  be- 
come heavier  as  we  neared  the  battery,  which,  however, 
we  reached  in  safety.  There  was  nothing  for  it  now  but 
to  start  running  again  as  soon  as  we  had  caught  our  breath 
in  the  little  battery.  The  Roumanian  officers  squatting  in 
the  gorge  of  the  redoubt  shouted  to  us  to  run  in  their 
direction.  This  we  did,  and  were  grateful  to  them  when, 
as  we  rushed  in  among  them  picking  our  way  through  the 
dead,  they  pulled  us  down  on  the  ground  and  made  us 
squat  beside  them  for  protection  against  the  continuous 
shower  of  lead. 

"  We  now  had  time  to  look  about  us  and  examine  the 
exterior  of  the  work.  It  had  a  ditch  all  round  it,  and  the 
parapets  were  high  and  thick.     The  gorge  was  a  mere 


178  Czar  and  Sultan 

narrow  opening  facing  south,  by  which  the  Russian  battal- 
ion fought  its  way  in  ;  the  redoubt  had  been  constructed 
for  defence  against  the  north.  Presently  Colonel  Welles- 
ley  asked  permission  for  us  to  enter  the  redoubt,  which 
was  granted  with  the  advice  to  make  a  bolt  of  it  as  there 
was  a  dangerous  corner  to  pass.  This  we  did,  and  I  pray 
I  may  be  spared  ever  again  witnessing  such  a  sight  as 
now  met  my  eyes. 

"  The  interior  of  this  great  work  was  piled  up  not  only 
with  dead  but  with  wounded,  forming  one  ghastly  and 
tangled  huddlement  of  dead  and  living  bodies,  the 
wounded  as  little  cared  for  as  the  dead.  The  constant 
fire  had  hindered  the  surgeons  from  coming  up  to  attend 
the  wounded,  and  the  same  cause  had  kept  back  even  the 
stretcher-bearers.  There  were  not  even  comrades  to 
moisten  the  lips  of  their  wretched  fellow-soldiers,  or  give 
them  a  word  of  consolation.  There  they  lay  writhing  and 
groaning  in  their  agony.  It  angered  us  to  think  that 
absolutely  nothing  had  been  done — no  matter  at  what 
risk  —  to  give  some  succour  to  these  poor  wounded  fel- 
lows ;  for  they  were  the  gallant  men  who  a  few  hours 
before  had  so  valiantly  and  successfully  struggled  for  the 
conquest  of  the  long  uncaptured  redoubt,  and  it  was  sad 
now  to  see  them  dying  by  inches  without  any  attempt 
being  made  to  attend  to  them. 

"  Across  the  captured  Gravitza  redoubt  there  runs  a 
kind  of  traverse  which  contains  a  series  of  caves  in  the 
nature  of  rude  casemates,  in  which  no  doubt  the  Turks 
found  protection  from  the  shells  which  fell  into  it  almost 
without  interruption  for  days  before  it  was  carried.  An 
incessant  rain  of  bullets  swept  over  the  work  as  we  made 


The  Siege  of  Plevna  1 79 

our  way  over  the  bodies  for  which  the  ground  could  not 
be  seen.  We  were  interested  to  know  whence  came  the 
Turkish  fire,  and  so  we  crawled  up  the  interior  face  of  the 
parapet  and,  taking  off  our  caps,  peeped  over.  To  our 
utter  astonishment  we  saw  another  Turkish  redoubt  not 
more  than  250  yards  from  us  to  the  north-west;  and  it 
was  from  it  came  the  firing.  The  Roumanians  told  us 
that  the  attempt  to  take  it  yesterday  had  failed;  but  it 
was  to  be  attacked  that  afternoon,  since  the  captured 
redoubt  was  rendered  all  but  untenable  in  consequence  of 
its  proximity  and  command. 

"We  had  to  return  through  a  heavier  fire  than  that 
which  had  raged  as  we  came  up.  We  rested  awhile 
behind  the  hillock  where  the  Roumanian  reserves  were 
lying.  We  had  scarcely  left  them  when  a  tremendous 
shrapnel-fire  opened  against  them,  which  compelled  them 
to  retreat  and  draw  in  their  skirmish  line.  We  got  back 
safe,  and  my  sketch  of  the  interior  of  the  Gravitza  redoubt 
heaped  high  with  dead  and  dying,  will  make  a  four-page 
picture  for  next  week's  Graphic .''  That  seemed  to  me  to 
be  what  Villiers  chiefly  lived  for.  It  was  my  belief  that  if 
a  cannon-shot  had  carried  off  his  right  arm,  he  would  have 
rejoiced  in  the  opportunity  of  depicting  for  the  Graphic 
with  his  left  the  spectacle  he  would  have  presented  when 
docked  of  a  limb  and  rapidly  bleeding  to  death. 

By  this  time  MacGahan  and  I  were  discredits  to  our 
respective  nations,  because  of  the  tattered  condition  of  our 
clothing ;  and  he  proposed  that  since  matters  seemed 
comparatively  quiet  we  should  pay  a  visit  to  Bucharest 
for  the  purpose  of  refitting.  There  went  with  us  Millett, 
who  had  recently  left  old  General  Zimmermann  down  on 


i8o  Czar  and  Sultan 

"  Trajan's  wall "  in  the  Dobrutscha,  covering  the  Russian 
communications  in  Roumania  from  any  attacks  from  that 
quarter ;  and  who  now  purposed  attaching  himself  to  the 
army  of  the  Cesarevich  holding  the  line  of  the  Lom  and 
engaged  in  occasional  fighting  with  Mehemet  All's  army 
in  the  Turkish  quadrilateral.  Bucharest  we  found  in  uni- 
versal mourning,  for  the  Roumanian  army  had  been  deci- 
mated before  Plevna.  But  along  with  the  sorrow  was  a 
justifiable  pride  in  the  conspicuous  gallantry  of  the  soldiers 
who  had  made  light  of  their  own  fighting  pretensions ; 
and  it  seemed  to  me  that  every  man  and  every  woman  in 
Bucharest  carried  the  head  higher  and  trod  the  Podo 
Mogosoi  more  proudly  than  had  been  the  case  two  months 
before.  From  the  first  there  had  been  no  love  lost  be- 
tween the  Roumanians  and  the  Russians.  The  Russians 
had  despised  the  fighting  capacity  of  the  Roumanians, 
who,  for  their  part,  had  no  scruple  in  regarding  the 
Russians  as  but  half-civilised,  from  the  grand  dukes  down 
to  the  rank  and  file.  It  had  been  a  great  day  for  Rou- 
mania when  the  Russians  after  their  defeat  of  July  30th 
had  to  put  their  pride  in  their  pocket,  and  to  condescend 
to  beg  for  the  co-operation  of  that  Roumanian  army  at 
which  they  had  jeered.  It  was  a  prouder  day  still  for 
Roumania,  although  in  the  pride  was  a  great  sadness, 
when  it  was  told  in  Bucharest  how  the  Roumanian  soldiers 
stormed  the  high  and  steep  face  of  the  parapet  of  the 
Gravitza  redoubt,  and  were  inside  the  work  actually  in 
advance  of  the  Russian  regiment  which  entered  by  the 
easier  way  of  the  gorge. 

After    the    failure    before    Plevna   in    September    the 
interest  on  the  part  of  Europe  in  the  war  seemed  for  a 


-"0% 


THE    CESAREVICH,    iSyy. 


The  Siege  of  Plevna  i8i 


time  to  flag,  and  a  great  many  correspondents  left  the 
field  and  went  home.  I  had  now  been  campaigning  for 
some  six  months,  and  being  always  along  with  gentlemen 
who  had  experience  in  war  and  listening  closely  to  their 
comments  on  the  operations,  I  had  learned  a  good  deal. 
"  Why,  Carnegie,  you  are  quite  a  veteran !  "  said  Mac- 
Gahan  to  me  one  afternoon  while  we  sat  in  Brofft's 
garden-restaurant ;  "  by  this  time  you  know  more  of 
actual  warfare  than  many  a  man  who  commanded  a  bri- 
gade in  our  Civil  War."  "What  little  I  do  know,"  I 
replied,  "  I  have  mostly  picked  up  from  yourself ;  but 
the  rough  smattering  I  have  gathered  can  be  of  no  use 
to  me  for  any  purpose."  "  Why  should  you  believe 
that  ? "  asked  MacGahan.  "  Of  all  the  correspondents 
whose  photographs  are  in  the  headquarters  album,  not 
one-third  ever  heard  a  shot  fired  in  anger  before  this 
campaign ;  yet  they  write  and  talk  and  praise  or  censure 
with  as  much  confidence  as  if  they  had  been  engaged  in 
war  continuously  from  their  childhood.  You  could  do 
much  better  than  most  of  these  gentlemen.  If  you  like, 
I  can  obtain  for  you  the  correspondence  for  two  papers 
of  good-standing  —  one  American,  one  Scotch  —  whose 
representatives  are  starting  for  home  in  a  day  or  two." 
It  was  a  piece  of  great  audacity  for  a  lad  who  had  not 
seen  his  seventeenth  birthday  to  take  on  himself  the  duty 
of  a  war-correspondent.  But  MacGahan  and  Millett  gave 
me  great  encouragement ;  I  was  sure  of  Villiers'  good 
offlces,  and  I  confess  to  having  had  some  little  self- 
reliance.  MacGahan  made  the  arrangements  for  me 
with  the  gentlemen  who  were  departing.  It  was  a  proud 
day  for  me  when  I  went  down  to  Giurgevo  and  told  my 


I«2 


Czar  mid  Sultan 


father  that  I  was  now  an  actual  war-correspondent,  writ- 
ing a  letter  a  week  to  the  Philadelphia  Budget  and 
another  to  the  Glasgow  Neivs,  the  honorarium,  as  Mac- 
Gahan  called  it,  for  each  letter  being  ^3.  It  was  not 
difficult  work,  although  at  first  I  was  very  nervous.  But 
I  found  that  the  true  way  to  go  to  work  was  simply  to 
record  what  I  saw  and  heard  as  clearly  and  plainly  as 
possible,  and  to  try  to  see  and  hear  as  much  as  I  could 
in  order  to  have  matter  for  my  letters. 

The  day  before  that  on  which  MacGahan  had  fixed  for 
returning  to  Plevna,  Skobeleff  arrived  in  Bucharest  on 
the  errand  of  commissioning  an  adequate  equipment  for 
his  new  rank  of  lieutenant-general.  Notwithstanding  his 
promotion  and  the  great  prestige  he  had  gained,  Skobeleff 
was  in  a  state  of  deep  despondency.  That  in  a  measure 
might  have  been  accounted  for  in  the  terrible  losses  of 
comrades  whom  he  had  loved  ;  but  as  a  soldier  he  was 
disgusted  to  the  very  soul  by  the  follies  and  blundering 
that  had  characterised  the  recent  attempt  on  Plevna. 

"  Shall  we  never  learn  anything .? "  he  exclaimed. 
"  Can  we  never  bring  ourselves  to  realise  that  we  have 
responsibilities  both  to  God  and  man.?  Are  our  brave 
men  dirt  that  we  squander  their  lives  as  if  they  were  of 
no  account  1  We  don't  deserve  to  have  men  so  devoted, 
men  who  die  so  heroically,  men  whom  no  stupidity  of  ours 
can  force  to  take  a  panic,  but  who  fight  on  steadfastly  till 
they  drop.  Our  dispositions  are  faulty,  our  execution  is 
loose,  unpunctual,  and  ineffective  —  why,  the  Servians 
conducted  war  better  than  do  we,  and  the  Turks  simply 
amuse  themselves  at  our  expense !  The  blood  wasted 
before  Plevna  had    scarcely  sunk    into  the  ground  when 


The  Siege  of  Plevna  183 

we  were  committing  fresh  imbecilities.  You  know  Gen- 
eral Kriloff,  who  took  Zotoff's  place  in  command  of  the 
4th  Corps  while  Zotoff  was  acting  chief  of  staff.  Than 
this  Kriloff  there  is  in  all  Russia  no  more  doddering  fool 
as  a  soldier,  no  more  sordid  knave  as  a  citizen.  He  is  a 
creature  of  protection  and  bribery.  Before  the  war  he 
was  Governor  of  Wilna  and  at  the  same  time  commanded 
a  cavalry  division.  It  is  a  fact  that  while  at  Wilna  he 
never  had  a  charger.  When  he  occasionally  had  a  review 
of  his  division  he  drove  to  the  field,  where  he  mounted  a 
troop-horse  chosen  for  him  because  of  its  docility.  He 
pocketed  his  horse-allowance  as  a  divisional  commander. 
He  can  ride  only  at  a  walk  —  you  never  saw  him  trot ; 
he  has  forgotten  what  a  canter  means. 

"Well,  this  dotard  was  entrusted  on  the  i8th  September 
with  a  cavalry  force  of  52  squadrons  and  30  guns,  and 
sent  to  the  west  of  the  Vid  to  complete  a  sort  of  invest- 
ment of  Plevna  ;  with  orders  also  to  break  up  Osman's 
communications,  to  reconnoitre  along  the  roads  into  the 
Ba.lkans,  and  above  everything  to  prevent  the  entry  into 
Plevna  of  supplies  or  reinforcements.  To  send  cavalry 
alone  on  such  an  errand  was  fatuous,  since  it  was  certain 
that  any  Turkish  convoys  heading  for  Plevna  would  be 
strongly  escorted  by  infantry  ;  to  send  any  force  anywhere 
under  the  command  of  the  incompetent  Kriloff  was  mere 
midsummer  madness.  Kriloff  sent  his  Cossack  brigade 
to  reconnoitre  along  the  Sophia  road  in  the  direction  of 
Telis.  That  place  was  found  occupied  by  10,000  Turkish 
infantry,  which  next  day  came  on  towards  Plevna  head- 
ing a  great  convoy,  at  the  same  time  that  a  Turkish 
column  came  out  from  Plevna  to  give  the    hand   to  the 


184  Czar  and  Stiltan 

reinforcement.     If    Kriloff    could   not    have   done   much 
with  his  cavalry,  he  might  at  least  have  broken  up  and 
stampeded  the  convoy  with    his   artillery-fire.     But  with- 
out firing  a  shot  he  withdrew  to  Trestenik,  fifteen  miles 
to  the  north,  leaving  the  road  into  Plevna  quite  open,  so 
that  the  Turkish  convoy  of  3,000  waggon-loads  of  supplies 
and  munitions  quietly  entered  the  same  night  along  with 
12,000  infantry,  a  regiment  of  cavalry  and  two  batteries. 
Two  days  later  a  second  smaller  convoy  got  into  Plevna 
unmolested.     Meanwhile    Kriloff   rode   away  on  a   fool's 
errand   to  attempt  the   bombardment   of    the  fortress  of 
Rahova  with    his  trumpery  4-pounders.     During   his  ab- 
sence  the  Sophia  road   remained  open  and   the  Turkish 
communications  and   telegraph    had   been  completely  re- 
stored.    On  his  return  to  Trestenik   he  sent   a    Cossack 
colonel  with  a  few  squadrons  to  wreck  the  bridge  on  the 
Sophia  road    near    Radomirtza.     The   detachment   broke 
the    bridge  and    captured   a    herd    of    1,000  cattle  and   a 
small  train  loaded  with  quinine  and  salt.     It  remained  for 
two    days    skirmishing    about    Radomirtza    with     Bashi- 
Bazouks,  but  was    too  weak   to   be   of  any  account ;  and 
on  the  5th  of  this  month  Chefket  Pasha,  marching  from 
Orkhanie  on  Plevna  with  5,000  infantry  and  a  swarm  of 
Tcherkesses,  brushed  the  Cossack  detachment  out  of  his 
path,  took  his  troops  on  to  Telis  and  Gorni-Dubnik,  vil- 
lages on    the  Sophia    road  which    Osman's    troops    from 
Plevna  had    already  begun  to    fortify,  and    himself  went 
into  Plevna  to  see  Osman.     Chefket  brought  with  him  a 
considerable  convoy,  and    as    he  passed    he  repaired  the 
bridge    at    Radomirtza    in    a    few    hours.     That    sluggish 
beast  Kriloff,  when  I  left  the  front,  was  still  remaining 


The  Siege  of  Plevna  185 

idle  at  Trestenik  with  the  bulk  of  his  command.  He 
ought  to  be  tried  and  shot ;  but  he  will  be  let  down  easy. 
Gourko  is  on  his  way  to  supersede  him,  and  he  will  be 
sent  back  to  Russia  into  some  comfortable,  dignified,  and 
lucrative  ofifice.  By  the  joint  imbecility  of  the  head- 
quarters staff  and  of  Kriloff,  I  reckon  that  since  the 
fighting  ended  and  we  collapsed  Osman  has  received 
reinforcements  of  some  20,000  men,  with  supplies  for  his 
whole  army  for  two  months  and  a  great  store  of  muni- 
tions." Having  thus  delivered  himself  Skobeleff  spat 
viciously  —  the  Russian's  invariable  sign  of  disgust. 

While  we  were  making  our  little  holiday  in  Bucharest, 
General  Todleben  arrived  there  along  with  the  few  officers 
forming  his  modest  personal  staff.  MacGahan  told  me 
that  when  the  commands  were  being  arranged  previous 
to  the  declaration  of  war,  there  had  been  general  wonder 
throughout  the  army  that  the  great  soldier  who  had  de- 
fended Sevastopol  with  such  brilliant  skill  and  tenacity, 
and  who  had  covered  the  Russian  retreat  so  brilliantly 
on  the  day  of  Inkermann,  had  not  been  asked  to  take  the 
field.  It  had  been  expected  that  he  would  be  appointed 
to  the  high  position  of  chief  of  staff  to  the  Commander- 
in-Chief,  which  if  he  had  occupied,  it  is  certain  that  the 
follies  which  Nepokoitschitsky  and  Levitsky  perpetrated 
and  the  Grand  Duke  Nicholas  sanctioned  would  not  have 
occurred.  It  was  the  current  gossip  in  the  army  that 
Todleben  had  loyally  tendered  his  services,  and  that  they 
had  been  brusquely  declined  by  the  Commander-in-Chief. 
If  the  reason  for  this  declinature  was  that  which  Mac- 
Gahan had  heard  on  good  authority,  there  was  another 
inst^ce  among  many  how  in  Russia  personal  considera- 


1 86  Czar  and  Sultan 

tions  override  the  obvious  fitness  of  things.  It  was  uni- 
versally acknowledged  that  Todleben  as  chief  of  staff 
would  be  the  right  man  in  the  right  place ;  but  the  Grand 
Duke  Nicholas  nourished  a  long-standing  grudge  against 
Russia's  most  eminent  soldier.  During  the  siege  of  Sevas- 
topol Nicholas  and  one  of  his  brothers  paid  a  short  visit  to 
the  Crimea,  and  witnessed  from  a  safe  distance  the  battle 
of  Inkermann.  Nicholas  had  intimated  his  desire  that 
Todleben  should  accompany  him  to  the  position  whence 
the  fighting  was  to  be  witnessed.  Todleben  had  respect- 
fully requested  that  his  presence  might  be  dispensed  with, 
since  it  was  probable  that  the  French  would  take  the 
opportunity  to  make  an  assault  on  Sevastopol,  to  meet 
which  his  presence  was  requisite.  One  would  think  there 
was  nothing  in  this  to  give  offence,  but  Nicholas  in  one  of 
his  wayward  moods  chose  to  feel  himself  insulted,  and 
from  that  day  he  had  nourished  ill-will  against  Todleben. 
Now,  however,  he  had  to  swallow  his  spite,  for  the  Em- 
peror had  resolved  that  the  great  engineer  officer  should 
be  entrusted  with  the  conduct  of  the  investment  of  Plevna. 
So  Nicholas  had  to  accept  him,  and  for  the  time  to  become 
himself  a  comparative  nonentity. 

Todleben  was  a  very  handsome  man,  very  dignified,  and 
at  the  same  time  very  affable.  At  the  age  of  sixty  he  was 
still  tall,  straight,  and  active,  without  a  grey  hair  in  his 
head,  and  he  did  not  look  within  ten  years  of  his  actual 
age.  He  had  started  from  Russia  so  hurriedly  that  he 
had  brought  no  horses  with  him,  and  Bucharest  had  been 
swept  so  clean  of  horses  that  even  the  street  tram-cars 
had  for  the  time  ceased  to  run.  There  were  ponies,  but  the 
general  rode  at  least  fifteen   stone.     I   remembered   that 


The  Siege  of  Plevna  187 


just  before  the  outbreak  of  the  war  my  father  had  bought 
a  powerful  grey  stallion  for  my  elder  brother,  your  father, 
who  was  a  big-boned  heavy  fellow  even  before  he  had 
come  to  his  full  growth.  When  I  went  to  Giurgevo  to  tell 
my  father  that  I  was  now  enrolled  in  the  great  army  of 
war-correspondents,  I  asked  him  whether  he  still  had  the 
grey  stallion,  and  whether  he  cared  to  sell  him. 

"Sell  him!"  exclaimed  the  old  gentleman  —  "I  should 
think  so,  indeed  !  He  will  not  go  in  harness  ;  when  your 
brother  tries  to  ride  the  beast  he  walks  on  his  hind  legs, 
and  shrieks  and  neighs  so  loudly  that  he  actually  draws 
the  fire  of  the  Rustchuk  guns.  He  is  eating  his  head  off 
here ;  I  have  no  use  for  him,  and  we  are  all  more  or  less 
frightened  at  him.  I  have  tried  in  vain  to  sell  him  to  the 
Russians;  but  he  scared  them  when  they  saw  him  ram- 
pant and  looking  as  if  he  would  eat  them.  One  captain 
offered  me  10  roubles  for  him,  but  his  hide  is  worth  more 
than  that  —  I  paid  100  ducats  for  him.  If  you  can  get 
half  that  for  him,  I  shall  gladly  be  quit  of  him." 

"  I  believe,  sir,"  said  I,  "that  I  can  get  all  you  paid  for 
him.  General  Todleben  is  in  Bucharest,  hunting  every- 
where in  vain  for  a  charger.  His  aide-de-camp  told  me 
that  the  general  is  a  splendid  horseman,  and  does  not 
care  what  he  rides  so  long  as  the  mount  is  up  to  his 
weight.  That  grey  would  carry  twenty  stone  even  in  the 
Plevna  mud,  and  a  couple  of  days'  hard  work  will  knock 
the  nonsense  out  of  him  and  make  him  as  quiet  as  a 
sheep." 

The  old  gentleman  fell  in  with  the  idea,  and  the  big 
grey  and  I  started  for  Bucharest  the  next  morning.  We 
certainly  had  a  very  lively  time.     The  grey  had  no  vice, 


1 88  Czar  and  Sultan 

apparently,  but  he  was  very  much  above  himself  and 
took  a  great  deal  of  riding.  By  road  the  distance  from 
Giurgevo  to  Bucharest  is  about  forty  miles.  There  never 
was  such  a  beast  for  standing  up  on  his  hind  legs,  and 
the  way  he  screamed  and  yelled  when  we  met  another 
horse  was  a  caution.  When  a  railway  train  passed  us  he 
went  off  at  score,  right  across  country.  It  was  all  grass 
with  only  a  ditch  here  and  there,  and  I  let  him  work  his 
wicked  will.  After  a  headlong  gallop  of  about  three 
miles  he  was  not  quite  so  saucy,  and  I  got  a  pull  on  him. 
We  were  near  the  half-way  house,  up  to  which  he  pirou- 
etted in  a  series  of  modified  bucks,  but  by  this  time  I  had 
him  quite  in  hand  although  he  had  not  yet  settled  down 
to  any  particular  pace.  At  Kalugareni  I  lunched  and 
gave  the  grey  a  feed  of  maize ;  after  an  hour's  rest  we 
took  the  road  again.  He  was  now  quite  a  reformed  char- 
acter, and  after  a  few  capers  settled  down  to  a  good 
honest  trot.  He  was  a  bit  rough,  it  was  true,  and  if 
Todleben  had  any  tendency  to  liver  trouble,  the  grey  was 
the  horse  to  cure  that  ailment ;  but  his  trot  was  true  and 
free  —  a  good  ten  miles  an  hour,  his  fore  action,  as  I  had 
expected  from  the  goodness  of  his  shoulders,  high  with- 
out being  too  high  —  his  hind  legs  well  under  him  and 
full  of  motive  power.  We  reached  Bucharest  about  4 
p.m.,  the  grey  quite  sobered  but  not  in  the  least  dis- 
tressed, although  he  was  far  from  being  in  condition.  I 
rode  him  at  a  trot  into  the  courtyard  of  Brofft's  Hotel, 
and  pulled  him  up  rather  sharply  so  that  he  might  show 
himself.  Todleben  and  his  officers  were  sitting  in  the 
courtyard  drinking  tea.  Before  I  dismounted  I  heard 
the  general  exclaim  softly  to  his  aide-de-camp  — "  What 


The  Siege  of  Plevna  189 


a  fine  powerful  horse ! "     Giving  the  rein  to  a  loafer  and 
telling  him  to  walk  the  horse  up  and  down  the  courtyard, 
I  beckoned   the  aide-de-camp    aside  and  begged  that  he 
would  present  me  to  his  Excellency.     Colonel   Tutolmin 
did  so,  naming  me,  and  mentioning  that  I  was  one  of  the 
English  correspondents.     The  general  rose,  shook  hands 
with  great  cordiality,  and  observed  that  he  had  liked  the 
English   ever   since  the    Crimea.     I    ventured  to  remark 
that  the  English  had  perhaps  "better  reason  for  admiring 
him  than  for  liking  him,"  an  expression  which  he  seemed 
to  regard  as  a  compliment.     "  Fine  horse  you  have  there, 
Mr.  Carnegie,"  said  Todleben ;  "I    suppose   there  is  no 
chance  of  your  being  willing  to  sell  him  t  "     Then  I  told 
him  that  having  learned  his  difficulty  as  to  a  charger,  I 
had  brought  the  grey  up  from  Giurgevo  for  his  inspection, 
and   that  if  he  liked  the  horse    he  might  have  him  and 
welcome  for  the  price  my  father  had  paid  for  him  in  the 
quiet  days  before  the  war.     With  that  I  handed  him  my 
father's  memorandum  of  the  price  at  which  he  had  bought 
the  horse,  dated  on  the  day  of  purchase. 

Todleben  threw  his  arms  round  me  and  kissed  me  on 
both  cheeks.  "  It  is  a  most  kindly  action  you  have  done 
me,  young  gentleman!  I  shall  never  forget  it !  "  "You 
are  most  gracious,  your  Excellency,"  I  replied;  "but  let 
me  remind  you  that  you  have  not  yet  tried  the  horse  —  you 
may  not  like  him.  After  you  have  ridden  him  an  hour  in 
the  Chaussee  you  will  know  him  better.  He  is  quiet  now 
after  forty  miles,  but  he  was  a  good  deal  of  a  rogue  for 
the  first  twenty."  "  Oh,  I  like  a  horse  with  some  char- 
acter !  "  he  exclaimed  gaily,  as  he  let  down  the  stirrups 
and  swung  himself  into  the  saddle.     The  grey  reared  and 


190  Czar  and  Sultan 

plunged,  but  he  felt  the  hand  of  a  master,  and  rider  and 
horse  disappeared  at  a  hard  canter  up  the  Podo  Mogosoi. 
They  were  back  in  the  courtyard  of  the  hotel  an  hour 
later,  evidently  on  excellent  terms  with  each  other.  "  Per- 
fection, Mr.  Carnegie — quite  perfection!  P'ully  up  to 
my  weight,  and  merely  gay  —  not  an  atom  of  vice.  I  am 
everlastingly  obliged  to  you.  Do  me  the  favour  to  settle 
the  little  matter  with  Colonel  Tutolmin,  and  then  I  shall 
be  much  gratified  if  you  and  your  friend  Mr.  MacGahan, 
whom  I  have  already  met  in  St.  Petersburg,  will  give  me 
the  pleasure  of  your  company  at  dinner." 

That  was  for  me  a  most  charming  dinner  party,  a 
night  to  be  marked  with  a  white  stone  in  one's  memory. 
Skobeleff  was  one  of  the  guests ;  Todleben  was  the  only 
Russian  soldier  whom  we  reverenced,  and,  silent  himself 
for  the  most  part,  he  hung  intently  on  the  words  of  the 
veteran.  Todleben  told  us  that  his  first  soldiering  had 
been  against  Schamyl  in  the  Caucasus  from  1848  to  185 1, 
a  series  of  wild  bloody  combats  of  which  the  mountaineers 
often  had  the  best.  The  savagery,  he  owned,  was  as 
conspicuous  on  the  one  side  as  on  the  other,  and  on 
neither  was  there  any  thought  of  quarter.  From  the 
Caucasus  he  had  come  into  the  Principalities  with  Gort- 
schakoff  in  1853.  "I  don't  believe,"  he  said,  "that  there 
is  a  man  of  the  Russian  army  now  in  the  field  who  knows 
Wallachia  and  Moldavia  so  thoroughly  as  in  1853-54  I 
had  come  to  know  the  Principalities.  Those  earthworks 
at  Slobosia  above  Giurgevo  which,  Skobeleff,  as  I  have 
read  you,  armed  in  the  early  summer  with  *  quaker '  guns 
made  of  straw  to  impose  on  the  garrison  of  Rustchuk  — 
that    entrenched    position  with   the  battery-emplacements 


The  Siege  of  Plev7ia  191 

along  its  front  I  built  five-and-twenty  years  ago,  when  I 
was  a  lieutenant.  It  used  to  be  a  standing  piece  of  intelli- 
gence with  you  youngsters  in  July  —  that  stereotyped  de- 
spatch from  Haussenkampf,  '  All  quiet  in  the  vicinity  of 
Oltenitza.'  I  made  the  lines  of  Oltenitza,  and  was  driven  out 
of  them  by  a  swarm  of  mad  Turks  headed  by  a  madder 
Englishman.  Then  Gortschakoff  went  home  with  the  re- 
mains of  his  army,  half  of  which  had  died  of  sickness  in 
Wallachia ;  and  next  May  I  was  across  the  Danube  with 
Paskievitch  engaged  in  the  siege  of  Silistria.  We  did  our 
honest  best,  and  I  believe  we  should  have  carried  the  place 
but  that  the  Turks  found  gallant  and  skilful  leaders  in  a 
couple  of  English  officers.  You  spoke,  Skobeleff,  of  that 
old  bridge-head  on  the  Danube  above  Giurgevo.  That  was 
built  by  Hassan  Pasha,  after  the  Englishmen  Cannon  and 
Burke  had  got  across  the  river,  taken  our  brigade  in  flank, 
and  driven  us  away.  I  was  wounded  in  that  fight  by  a 
gigantic  desperado  of  an  Irishman  named  Burke,  who 
obstinately  refused  quarter  and  who  killed  some  half-dozen 
of  us  before  he  was  finally  put  an  end  to.  We  were  going 
to  give  him  Christian  burial  when  his  servant,  a  fellow  as 
big  as  himself,  whose  head  had  been  cut  open,  came  up 
leading  a  horse  and  demanding  the  body  of  his  master 
with  oaths  and  tears.  We  helped  him  to  lash  the  body 
on  to  the  pack-saddle  and  then  offered  the  fellow  some 
money,  for  we  were  touched  by  his  devotion  to  his  master ; 
but  he  turned  on  us  with  fury  in  every  feature,  cursed  us 
by  all  his  gods  through  his  tears,  and  spat  on  our  proffered 
money  which  he  had  thrown  on  the  ground.  Certainly 
we  got  no  change  out  of  the  Turks  on  the  Danube  under 
Omar  Pasha  in  1853-54. 


192  Czar  and  Sultan 

"  Men  talk  of  you,  Skobeleff,"  continued  his  Excellency, 
"  as  an  instance  of  exceptionally  quick  promotion  —  in  three 
years,  I  am  told,  you  have  risen  from  colonel  to  lieutenant- 
general.  You  know  that  with  us  of  the  Engineer  Corps 
promotion  is  mostly  much  slower  than  in  any  other  branch 
of  the  service.  Yet  I  suppose  scarcely  any  officer  in  any 
European  army  had  such  a  quick  run  of  luck  in  the  way 
of  promotion  as  happened  to  me  during  the  siege  of 
Sevastopol.  I  entered  that  fortress  a  captain  ;  in  less  than 
a  year  I  had  gone  through  the  successive  grades  to  the  rank 
of  major-general,  had  been  appointed  one  of  the  general 
adjutants  to  the  Emperor,  and  had  received  the  second- 
class  of  the  St.  George ;  and  during  a  considerable  part  of 
that  short  time  I  was  on  my  back  in  the  Star  fort  on  the 
North  shore  with  a  bad  wound  in  my  leg  from  which  I  still 
limp  a  bit.  There  were  not  so  many  of  your  profession, 
gentlemen,"  said  the  general  addressing  MacGahan  and 
myself,  "  in  the  allied  camp  outside  Sevastopol  as  there  are 
to-day  in  the  Russian  camp  outside  Plevna.  I  remember 
to  have  met  only  one  correspondent  in  the  Crimea  —  Mr. 
Russell  of  T/ie  Times,  whom  I  thought  a  very  amusing 
man.  It  was  before  the  fall  of  Sevastopol,  when  I  met 
him  during  one  of  the  truces  for  removing  the  wounded 
and  burying  the  dead.  I  remember  thinking  his  French 
accent  rather  comic.  I  confess  that  I  thought  Mr. 
Russell's  criticisms  on  my  '  Defense  de  Sevastopol '  pretty 
severe,  and  I  was  more  than  once  tempted  to  reply 
to  him.  But  we  had  met  on  cordial  terms  —  he  came  to 
Moscow  to  witness  the  Coronation  of  the  present  Emperor 
and  became  very  popular  during  his  short  stay  among  us. 
And  apart  from  all  that,  every  man  is  entitled  to  his  own 


V^- 


GENERAL    TODLEBEN. 


The  Siege  of  Plevna  193 

opinion.  I  iiave  read  of  Mr.  Russell  having  been  in  the 
Franco-German  war  of  1870-71." 

Next  morning  all  the  party  who  had  dined  together 
overnight,  with  the  exception  of  Skobeleff  who  remained 
in  Bucharest  a  few  days  longer,  went  down  to  Giurgevo 
by  train.  Todleben's  heavy  baggage,  after  being  detrained 
at  Giurgevo,  was  to  travel  by  stages  via  Simnitza  to  the 
front.  His  staff  were  accommodated  in  a  light  vehicle 
bought  in  Bucharest  and  drawn  by  four  screws,  the  gen- 
eral himself  was  to  ride  the  grey  stallion,  MacGahan  and 
I  had  our  ponies  at  Giurgevo  and  we  mounted  there. 
I  had  telegraphed  to  my  father  to  meet  us  at  the  Giurgevo 
railway,  and  I  presented  the  old  gentleman  to  General 
Todleben  on  the  platform  there.  His  Excellency  was 
most  courteous  to  your  worthy  grandfather,  praised  the 
grey  horse,  tried  in  vain  to  persuade  the  old  gentleman  to 
accept  an  addition  to  the  price  already  paid  and  gratify 
him  immensely  by  promising  to  send  him  a  large  photo- 
graph of  himself,  which  you  see  there  hanging  on  the  wall 
above  your  heads. 

We  started  on  the  long  dreary  ride  across  the  plains  to 
Simnitza.  The  grey  horse  for  the  first  few  miles  was 
decidedly  obstreperous.  Once  he  got  his  forelegs  over  the 
back  of  the  vehicle  in  which  Todleben's  officers  were  rid- 
ing, but  the  rest  of  him  remained  outside  along  with  the 
general.  He,  for  his  part,  was  greatly  amused  at  the  ani- 
mal's vagaries ;  but  regarded  it  as  rather  above  a  joke 
when  in  the  middle  of  the  ford  across  the  Vede  at  Brigadir 
the  beast  deliberately  lay  down  and  cooled  himself  and  his 
rider  in  the  swift-flowing  stream.  At  this  period  of  the 
campaign  Simnitza  was  simply  a  foul  nest  of  PoHsh  Jews 


194  Czar  and  Sultan 

selling  all  descriptioijs  of  impositions  from  adulterated 
champagne  to  sausages  whose  sole  contents  were  meal 
and  turmeric ;  of  wounded  lying  rotting  and  neglected  in 
the  canvas  marquees  which  went  by  the  name  of  hospitals  ; 
of  thieves,  ruffians,  and  the  general  scum  and  dregs  of 
Eastern  Europe.  When  the  wind  set  your  way  you  could 
smell  the  sour  rancid  smell  of  the  pestilential  place  quite 
a  mile  before  you  reached  it.  We  determined  that  sooner 
than  spend  the  night  in  its  atmosphere,  we  would  sleep 
under  the  beautiful  stars ;  but  MacGahan  said  he  knew  of 
good  and  sweet  quarters  in  a  house  on  the  outskirts  of 
Sistova.  So  we  crossed  the  Danube  by  the  upper  bridge 
of  boats,  toiled  up  the  steep  slope,  and  did  actually  find 
the  accommodation  he  had  described,  in  the  house  of  a 
returned  Turk  whose  women  had  gone  across  the  Balkans. 
Next  morning  we  pursued  our  journey.  At  Poradim, 
where  the  Emperor  was  now  lying  in  very  mean  and  com- 
fortless quarters,  General  Todleben  left  us  to  pay  his 
homage  to  his  Imperial  master  and  confer  with  him  on  the 
situation.  Before  parting  he  told  us  to  come  to  him  when- 
ever we  wanted  information  as  to  the  operations  which  he 
was  to  conduct,  and  assured  us  always  of  a  hearty  welcome. 
We  were  proud  to  have  made  the  acquaintance  of  a  man 
so  illustrious  and  so  cordial,  and  congratulated  ourselves  on 
the  good  fortune  which  gave  us  the  opportunity  of  know- 
ing him.  We  rode  on  through  a  quietude  that  was  actually 
startling  in  contrast  with  the  horrible  din  of  the  recent 
bombardment,  past  Radischevo  now  the  quarters  of  Gen- 
eral Zotoff  who  had  resumed  the  command  of  the  4th 
Corps,  and  so  on  to  Tutchenitza,  where  our  waggon  was 
and  where  was  now  the  headquarter  of  General  Skobeleff 


The  Siege  of  Plevna  195 

although  he  himself  was  temporarily  out  of  residence 
there.  In  consequence  of  the  retreat  which  he  had  been 
compelled  by  order  to  take  on  the  evening  of  the  13th 
September,  he  had  surrendered  all  the  ground  he  had  pre- 
viously won,  and  the  Turks  were  now  not  only  in  the 
village  of  Brestovatz  but  held  the  "  Red  Hill  "  behind  it. 
While  we  had  been  idhng  in  Bucharest  the  indefatiga- 
ble Villiers  had  been  hard  at  work.  The  Plevna  bombard- 
ment was  no  sooner  over  than  he  learned  that  there  was 
mischief  in  the  Schipka  Pass.  He  at  once  rode  thither, 
reaching  the  position  on  the  i6th  in  the  midst  of  a  furious 
cannonade  from  the  Turks,  to  which  the  Russians  were 
able  to  reply  but  languidly.  Radetski  was  still  up  there 
in  the  clouds;  a  fixture  —  in  his  own  words — "Come 
Turk,  or  come  devil."  Well,  the  Turks  did  come,  and 
that  with  great  fierceness,  before  daybreak  on  the  morning 
after  Villiers'  arrival.  They  had  bombarded  steadily  for 
four  days  with  mortars  as  well  as  with  guns,  and  now 
their  infantry  came  forward  to  the  attack  on  all  sides,  their 
chief  efforts,  as  before,  being  directed  on  Mount  St.  Nich- 
olas. Here  in  the  darkness  they  stormed  up  to  within  a 
hundred  paces  of  the  defences  on  the  summit,  forced  the 
Russians  out  of  the  advanced  trenches,  and  made  good  the 
captured  position  with  the  gabions  and  fascines  they  had 
carried  up.  The  actual  fighting  for  the  possession  of  the 
hill  lasted  from  daybreak  until  past  noon.  Radetski  was 
there  himself  in  the  thick  of  the  fighting,  reinforcing  by 
another  the  regiment  holding  the  hill  which  was  the  key 
of  the  Russian  position.  Again  and  again  the  Turks 
made  desperate  efforts  to  sweep  the  Russians  from  the 
summit,   but  in  vain ;    equally  in  vain  were  the  Russian 


196  Czar  and  Sultan 

attempts  to  fling  the  Turks  out  of  the  trenches  which  they 
had  carried  and  strengthened  before  daylight.  The  bayo- 
net was  the  weapon  chiefly  plied,  and  the  Russians  were 
the  better  men  with  the  "  white  arm."  Early  in  the  after- 
noon a  simultaneous  rush  was  made  on  the  Turks,  who 
were  finally  driven  down  and  out.  An  independent  attack 
on  the  Russian  right  was  not  pressed  so  strongly  and  it 
withered  under  the  Russian  volley-firing  at  fifty  yards. 
Radetski's  loss  on  this  17th  September  amounted  to  31 
officers  and  over  1,000  men ;  a  heayy  cost,  but  accomplish- 
ing the  result  that  the  Turks  never  after  made  any  serious 
attempt  on  the  Russian  position.  Radetski  estimated  their 
losses  at  about  3,000  men ;  the  south  side  of  Mount  St. 
Nicholas  was  piled  high  and  thick  with  corpses.  By  the 
end  of  the  month  Suleiman  was  withdrawn  from  the  army 
of  the  Schipka  and  sent  to  the  Eastern  Quadrilateral,  and 
he  was  succeeded  at  Schipka  by  Reouf  Pasha,  who  in  his 
turn  was  succeeded  by  Vessil  Pasha.  Radetski  kept  his 
grip  on  the  Schipka  without  relenting  until  after  the  new 
year,  and  then  quitted  it  only  to  advance  into  Roumelia. 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  things  in  connection  with 
the  Imperial  and  the  Grand  Ducal  headquarters  through- 
out the  Russo-Turkish  war  was  the  leakage  from  both  of 
information  regarding  matters  which  one  would  have  im- 
agined to  be  profound  secrets.  Probably  there  was  the 
intention  that  the  secrecy  should  be  maintained,  but  if  so, 
the  intention  was  more  honoured  in  the  breach  than  in 
the  observance.  On  the  day  after  we  returned  to  the 
army  before  Plevna,  MacGahan  went  to  the  headquarters 
of  the  Grand  Duke  Nicholas  at  Bogot  on  the  hunt  for 
information.     He  came  back  late  with  quite  a  budget  of 


The  Siege  of  Plevna  197 

news  which  he  recounted  to  me.  It  appeared  that  during 
the  early  part  of  the  interval  between  the  battle  of  the 
30th  June  and  the  September  fighting  around  Plevna,  the 
intention  was  that  when  the  weather  should  break  towards 
the  close  of  the  year,  the  Russian  army  should  go  into 
winter  quarters  and  undertake  a  second  campaign  in  the 
spring  of  1878.  But  a  personal  intimation  from  the  Queen 
of  England  to  the  Emperor,  in  direct  contradistinction  to 
an  official  intimation  of  an  entirely  different  tenor  made 
by  the  British  Foreign  Minister  to  Prince  Gortschakoff 
the  Russian  Chancellor,  had  been  given  to  the  effect  that 
the  war  should  be  finished  in  a  single  campaign.  The 
Emperor  had  accepted  this  intimation,  although  with  great 
umbrage ;  doing  so  only  on  the  suggestion  of  which  it  was 
said  that  the  Grand  Duke  Nicholas  was  the  author,  that 
a  campaign  need  have  no  specified  duration  and  might 
last  indefinitely,  providing  there  was  no  formal  cessation 
of  active  operations  in  the  field.  The  Grand  Duke  was 
reported  to  have  added  that  the  injunction  from  Osborne 
which  in  effect  made  winter  campaigning  obligatory, 
would  cause  heavy  mortality  from  freezing  and  frostbites 
among  the  soldiers,  but  that  the  responsibility  for  this  suf- 
fering and  mortality  would  not  rest  on  the  Russian  military 
authorities  who  were  reluctantly  bound  by  the  intimation 
referred  to.  The  continuation  of  active  operations  through- 
out the  winter  thus  decided  on  in  a  manner  perforce,  there 
remained  to  be  settled,  now  that  at  the  beginning  of  Octo- 
ber the  Guard  was  arriving  in  the  vicinity  of  Plevna  and 
the  Grenadier  Corps  following  closely,  affording  a  disposa- 
ble force  of  more  than  70,000  men,  what  disposition 
should   be   made   of   these   reinforcements.     There  were 


198  Czar  and  Sultan 

already  forces  around  Plevna  amply  strong  enough  to 
cope  with  Osman,  and  the  army  of  the  Lom  had  proved 
its  capacity  to  defend  the  eastern  flank.  This  being  so,  it 
had  been  urged  by  the  forward  party  in  the  Grand  Duke's 
staff  that  those  70,000  men,  reinforced  C7i  route  by  Radet- 
ski's  command  to  nearly  100,000,  should  immediately  pro- 
ceed to  cross  the  Balkans  by  the  Schipka  Pass,  sweeping 
before  them  the  Turkish  forces  in  their  path,  and  march 
straight  on  to  Adrianople.  The  project  included  the  ap- 
pointment of  the  Cesarevich  to  the  command  of  this  active 
army,  and  so  early  as  September  23rd  an  order  of  the  day 
had  directed  that  prince  to  take  command  of  the  Guard  as 
a  preliminary  measure.  The  safer  men  of  the  headquarter 
staff  had  meanwhile  been  pointing  out  that  there  was  a 
Turkish  army  in  the  Sophia  Balkans  which,  while  the 
Russian  active  army  was  on  the  march  towards  Adriano- 
ple, might  move  down  on  Plevna  and  join  forces  with 
Osman,  with  results  possibly  extremely  inconvenient  to  the 
Russian  army  investing  Plevna.  Within  the  last  few  days, 
added  MacGahan,  the  forward  plan  had  been  definitely 
abandoned,  the  Cesarevich  remained  in  his  command  of 
the  Lom,  the  Guards  and  Grenadiers  were  to  rendezvous 
about  Plevna,  and  the  capture  of  Plevna  was  to  precede 
any  further  far-reaching  operations. 

That  the  Turks  in  Plevna  were  still  in  good  heart  was 
presently  to  be  manifested.  The  industrious  Roumanians 
had  been  steadily  sapping  up  to  within  a  few  yards  of  the 
ditch  of  the  second  Gravitza  redoubt.  On  October  19th 
several  battalions  made  a  rush  only  to  be  driven  back  with 
great  slaughter.  The  Roumanians  tried  again  just  before 
sundown,  and  actually  got  into  the  ditch.      But  the  Turks 


The  Siege  of  Plevna  199 

sprang  on  to  the  parapet  and  blazed  down  at  arm's  length 
on  the  Roumanians  below  them ;  when  the  latter  strove 
to  ascend  the  outward  face  of  the  parapet  the  Turks  gave 
them  the  bayonet  and  heaved  them  back.  When  darkness 
fell  the  Roumanians  were  glad  to  get  back  into  their  own 
positions  with  a  loss  of  nearly  1,000  men,  and  they  made 
no  further  attempts  on  the  second  Gravitza  redoubt. 

Plevna  was  still  only  partially  invested.  But  the  whole 
of  the  Guard  had  now  arrived,  and  Todleben  set  about  his 
preparations  for  making  the  investment  complete.  So  far 
as  concerned  the  actual  garrison  of  Plevna,  that  task  was 
not  arduous;  he  would  only  have  to  close  the  gap  in  the 
environment  from  the  Loftcha  road  to  the  Vid,  and  along 
the  left  bank  of  that  stream  to  the  village  of  Dolni-Etropol, 
where  he  would  meet  the  right  flank  of  the  Roumanians. 
But  merely  to  do  this  would  be  to  leave  outside  the  ring 
of  the  investment  three  more  or  less  strongly  fortified  and 
garrisoned  places  along  the  Sophia  road,  within  a  distance 
of  some  25  miles  from  Plevna.  These  places  were  respec- 
tively, in  the  order  of  their  distance  from  Plevna,  Dolni- 
Dubnik,  Gorni-Dubnik  and  Telis.  The  task  of  driving 
the  Turks  from  these  positions  was  assigned  to  General 
Gourko,  who  had  returned  to  Bulgaria  from  Russia  at  the 
head  of  his  division  of  Guard  Cavalry.  He  was  now  to 
command  an  army  consisting  of  nearly  50,000  men,  of 
which  in  the  reduction  of  the  Turkish  positions  I  have 
named,  he  was  to  employ  for  the  most  part  the  Guard 
Corps,  exclusive  of  its  3rd  division,  which  was  to  join  the 
investing  force.  The  Guard  lay  in  readiness  to  move,  in 
and  about  the  village  of  Cirakova  on  the  right  bank  of  the 
Vid,  about  equidistant  from  Telis  and  Gorni-Dubnik. 


200  Czar  and  Sulta^i 

MacGahan's  ankle  was  troubling  him  again,  and  since 
for  the  time  he  could  neither  walk  nor  ride,  on  the  2ist 
October  I  went  to  the  army  headquarters  at  Bogot  in 
quest  of  information.  There  I  had  the  good  fortune  to 
meet  General  Gourko,  who  had  been  visiting  the  Grand 
Duke  Nicholas.  He  beckoned  me  to  him,  shook  hands 
very  cordially,  told  me  that  he  had  not  forgotten  the 
pioneer  work  in  the  Hainkioj  Pass  which  I  had  done  with 
Prince  Tzeretleff  in  the  early  days  of  the  war,  and  asked 
me  what  I  was  now  doing.  I  told  him  that  I  had  only 
just  come  back  from  Bucharest,  and  asked  his  permission 
to  accompany  the  operations  which  I  understood  he  was 
about  to  undertake,  adding  that  I  was  now  commissioned 
to  write  war-correspondence  for  an  American  and  a  Scot- 
tish newspaper.  Just  then  Prince  Tzeretleff,  whom  I  had 
not  seen  for  a  long  time,  came  up  and  greeted  me  with 
great  friendliness.  He  was  now,  it  seemed,  one  of  Gourko's 
orderly  officers.  After  a  little  conversation  the  general 
gave  his  consent  that  I  should  accompany  his  expedition, 
and  told  me  I  might  join  the  reconnaissance  which  he 
meant  to  make  from  Cirakova  towards  Gorni-Dubnik  on 
the  following  day.  You  may  be  sure  that  I  thanked  him 
very  warmly.  He  and  Tzeretleff  then  rode  away,  and  I 
returned  to  Tutchenitza  to  tell  MacGahan  of  my  good 
fortune.  He  congratulated  me,  and  added  that  when  I 
returned  I  should  find  Skobeleff  no  longer  here  at  Tutche- 
nitza, but  probably  at  or  about  Brestovatz,  in  the  old 
familiar  region  which  we  both  knew  so  well.  So  we 
parted,  and  I  rode  off  in  the  afternoon  for  Cirakova, 
where  I  shared  Prince  Tzeretleff's  tent  for  the  night. 

In  the  early  morning  of  the  22nd  Gourko  was  in  the 


GENERAL    GOI?RKO. 


The  Siege  of  Plevna  201 

saddle,  with  a  few  staff  officers  and  a  small  escort  of 
cavalry.  We  forded  the  Vid  and  rode  across  the  rolling 
country  on  its  left  bank,  heading  at  first  towards  Telis,  the 
Turkish  position  most  distant  from  Plevna.  That  place 
looked  rather  formidable,  with  a  strong  irregular  line  of 
breastwork  across  the  high  road  on  the  crest  above  a  bare 
slope  and  a  large  redoubt  on  the  further  side  of  the  vil- 
lage. Few  Turks  were  visible,  and  not  more  than  a  dozen 
rifle-shots  were  fired  at  Gourko's  little  party  from  the  shel- 
ter-trenches. We  then  rode  along  the  high  road  in  the 
direction  of  Plevna  for  some  six  miles  till  we  approached 
Gorni-Dubnik.  That  seemed  a  position  of  no  great 
strength.  The  village  was  about  a  mile  north  of  the  road 
and  was  not  fortified  at  all.  But  close  to  the  road  on  a 
hillock  there  was  one  of  those  tumuli  so  common  in  Tur- 
key, and  of  it  the  Turks  had  taken  advantage.  They  had 
levelled  off  the  top  of  the  mound  at  a  height  of  about  fif- 
teen feet  and  had  on  the  flat  top  a  battery  of  four  guns. 
This  mound  they  had  surrounded  with  a  hastily  thrown-up 
redoubt  of  irregular  shape,  the  parapet  of  which  did  not 
appear  strong.  Close  to  the  road  there  was  a  small  stone 
structure,  and  opposite  to  it  across  the  road  there  was  an 
insignificant-looking  lunette  at  which  the  staff  officers 
sneered  —  indeed,  they  made  very  light  of  the  Gorni-Dub- 
nik position  as  a  whole.  Gourko  was  a  silent  man ;  he 
looked  hard  and  said  nothing.  You  will  readily  believe 
that  I  was  not  qualified  to  form  any  opinion  on  the  sub- 
ject. Making  a  circuit  to  avoid  the  fire  from  Gorni-Dub- 
nik we  presently  returned  to  the  high  road,  and  went  on 
a  few  miles  further  until  within  sight  of  Dolni-Dubnik,  the 
Turkish  position   nearest   to    Plevna.     It   seemed    pretty 


202  Czar  and  Sultan 


strong,  surrounded  as  the  village  was  by  no  fewer  than 
six  small  redoubts.  Whether  the  village  itself  was  forti- 
fied was  not  to  be  discerned.  There  was  nothing  more  to 
be  seen,  and  we  rode  back  to  Cirakova  for  the  night. 
Before  going  to  sleep  Tzeretleff  told  me  that  Gourko  con- 
sidered Gorni-Dubnik  as,  if  not  the  strongest,  at  all  events 
the  most  important  of  the  three  Turkish  positions;  and 
that  he  intended  attacking  it  on  the  morrow  with  the  whole 
of  the  2nd  Guard  Division  and  the  Rifle  Brigade,  using  the 
1st  Division  with  most  of  the  cavalry  to  cover  the  attack 
on  the  Dolni-Dubnik  and  Telis  sides. 

That  night  there  was  little  sleep  in  the  Cirakova  camp. 
Before  daylight  of  the  24th  the  whole  force  had  crossed 
the  ford  and  was  on  march  towards  Gorni-Dubnik.  There 
was  great  eagerness  and  excitement  in  the  massive  ranks. 
The  Guards  had  been  full  of  discontent  when  line  corps 
after  line  corps  was  being  sent  into  the  field  while  they, 
the  picked  soldiers  of  Russia,  were  detained  at  home  in 
ignoble  passiveness.  But  that  feeling  existed  no  longer ; 
the  Guards  were  marching  to  their  first  battle,  and  they 
would  show  the  line  how  victories  were  to  be  won. 
Gourko  divided  his  command  into  three  separate  col- 
umns :  General  Ellis  went  to  the  right,  north-east  of  the 
redoubt,  with  his  Rifle  Brigade  and  16  guns ;  in  the  centre 
were  the  Moscow  and  Grenadier  regiments  with  16  guns 
under  General  Zeddeler,  on  a  little  eminence  south-east  of 
the  redoubt;  General  Rosenbach  had  the  Paul  and  Fin- 
land regiments  with  16  guns,  on  either  side  of  the  high 
road  south-west  of  the  redoubt  —  all  at  a  distance  from 
the  redoubt  of  some  1,800  yards.  The  Caucasian  Cossack 
brigade  sent  from  General  Arnoldi's  camp  was  in  position 


The  Siege  of  Plevna  203 

north-west  of  the  redoubt  with  its  six  horse-guns.  By 
nine  o'clock  56  guns  were  concentrating  an  incessant  fire 
on  the  Turkish  redoubt,  which  could  reply  but  feebly  with 
the  four  guns  which  were  all  it  possessed.  And  now 
their  chronic  disregard  of  simultaneous  co-operation  was, 
as  ever,  to  work  the  Russians  cruel  losses.  The  Grenadier 
regiment  of  the  centre  column  was  the  first  to  advance  to 
the  assault.  Leaving  my  horse  with  a  Cossack  I  went 
forward  with  the  Grenadiers  about  half-way,  then  lay 
down  on  a  little  hillock  and  intently  watched  the  result. 
The  terrible  fire  which  the  Turks  poured  upon  the  close 
Russian  line  wrought  immense  havoc,  and  staggered  the 
advance  for  a  short  time ;  but  the  men  hardened  their 
hearts,  and  with  one  strong  rush  climbed  the  parapet  and 
carried  the  lunette  on  the  hither  side  of  the  road.  There 
was  a  few  moments'  bayonet-fighting  inside ;  then  such 
of  the  Turks  as  survived  I  watched  dart  across  the  road 
and  race  up  the  steep  slope  to  the  redoubt.  A  Turkish 
officer  waving  his  sword  as  he  stood  on  the  parapet  was 
shot  down  by  a  Grenadier  officer.  A  charge  was  then 
made  with  great  dash  upon  the  redoubt ;  but  it  was  driven 
back  by  a  crushing  fire,  and  the  men  fell  back  into  the 
lunette  and  into  and  behind  the  little  stone  house  and  the 
ditches  on  either  side  of  the  road,  maintaining  a  hot  fire 
as  they  lay.  General  Zeddeler  then,  but  not  till  then, 
sent  forward  the  Moscow  regiment,  the  sister  regiment 
of  the  Grenadiers ;  but  all  that  it  could  do  was  to  find 
shelter  in  the  ditches  to  right  of  the  latter  regiment, 
having  lost  severely  in  its  advance.  Two  batteries  had 
followed  it  half-way,  but  so  fierce  was  the  Turkish  fire 
that  they  could  not  even  unlimber,  and  had  to  hurry  back 


204  Czar  and  Sultan 

to  their  first  position.  About  the  same  time  the  Paul  and 
Finland  regiments  constituting  the  left  column,  formed, 
crossed  the  hollow,  and  tried  to  climb  the  eminence  on 
which  was  the  redoubt.  But  they  could  not  stand  the 
gusts  of  fire  that  smote  them,  and  they  recoiled  into  folds 
in  the  valley  where  they  found  some  protection.  The 
Rifle  Brigade  on  the  right,  having  left  its  batteries  to  be 
protected  by  the  Ismailoff  regiment  which  had  joined 
from  the  force  watching  Dolni-Dubnik,  moved  down  into 
a  valley  along  whose  slopes  it  crept  until  arrested  by  the 
fire  of  the  redoubt.  So  close  up  were  the  prostrate  in- 
fantrymen that  the  action  of  the  artillery  was  greatly 
impeded  by  the  danger  of  hurting  friends  instead  of  foes. 
For  hours  the  fighting  remained  stationary,  the  Turks 
never  relaxing  their  fire,  the  Russians  beaten  down  as 
soon  as  they  ventured  on  efforts  to  get  to  closer  quarters. 
I  had  got  back  to  the  centre  where  now  there  were 
only  a  few  companies,  the  two  infantry  regiments  being 
forward  in  the  ditches  on  the  roadside.  Only  the  bat- 
teries were  in  the  original  position,  and  behind  them  some 
little  distance  were  Count  Schouvaloff  commanding  the 
2nd  Division  of  the  Guards,  his  staff  and  escort.  He 
was  asking  me  some  questions  as  to  what  I  had  seen 
when  out  to  the  front  with  the  Grenadiers,  when  Gourko, 
who  had  been  with  the  Ismailoff  regiment  on  the  right, 
rode  up  looking  very  gloomy.  Just  at  that  moment  an 
officer  came  galloping  up  from  the  force  on  the  Telis 
flank,  and  announced  to  the  general  that  in  attempting 
to  carry  the  works  in  front  of  that  place,  it  had  been 
badly  repulsed  and  compelled  to  fall  back  with  heavy 
loss.     "  Then,"  said  Gourko  in  a  strange  quiet  tone,  "  I 


The  Siege  of  Plevna  205 

am  to  understand  that  the  road  is  now  open  to  an  attack 
upon  us  here  by  Turkish  troops  coming  down  from  Telis  ?  " 
"  I  fear  so,  Excellency,"  replied  the  officer ;  "  I  know  we 
have  been  pushed  back  in  the  direction  of  Cirakova." 

"  Then,"  said  the  general,  "  we  must  strike  hard  and 
soon,  else  we  may  find  ourselves  in  an  awkward  position. 
All  the  troops  are  now  from  within  100  to  400  paces  of 
the  Turkish  redoubt.  A  simultaneous  attack  from  all 
sides  will  be  made  at  three  o'clock."  He  then  gave 
orders  to  the  staff  officers  about  him  to  ride  to  the  troops 
in  their  respective  positions,  and  inform  them  that  three 
volleys  were  to  be  fired  by  the  batteries  on  the  left ;  that 
three  volleys  should  then  be  fired  in  succession  by  the 
batteries  of  the  centre  and  right ;  and  that  after  the  last 
volley  fired  by  the  guns  of  the  right,  all  the  infantry 
should  simultaneously  rush  to  the  assault.  The  officers 
departed;  and  then  Gourko  desired  to  send  instructions 
to  be  carried  to  the  respective  batteries  in  the  terms  of 
which  the  troops  were  being  informed — the  volleys  to  be 
commenced  by  the  left  batteries,  and  to  be  ended  by  those 
on  the  right.  It  occurred  that  he  found  himself  short  of 
staff  officers,  several  of  whom  in  the  course  of  the  day 
had  been  killed  or  wounded  ;  and  turning  to  me  Gourko 
said  in  English :  "  Mr.  Carnegie,  you  will  greatly  oblige 
me  by  riding  to  the  batteries  on  the  right  with  the  instruc- 
tions you  have  just  heard  me  give.  You  will  incur  no 
risk;  the  batteries  are  well  out  of  rifle-range  from  the 
redoubt."  It  was  a  trying  moment  for  me,  but  I  had  to 
answer  at  once.  "  It  is  not  that  consideration,  sir,  that 
causes  me  to  beg  that  you  will  be  so  gracious  as  to  excuse 
me,  but  because  I  am  a  neutral.     Bid  me  under  fire  to  be 


2o6  Czar  and  Sultan 

of  service  to  the  wounded,  and  you  will  not  have  to  com- 
mand me  twice  ;  but  what  you  now  desire  of  me  is  quite 
another  thing."  Gourko  spat  from  between  his  teeth,  as 
is  the  manner  of  a  Russian  when  angry.  "  Neutral  !  " 
said  he  with  a  sneer,  "  Is  it  not  owing  to  our  hospitable 
reception  of  foreigners  that  you  are  here .''  Were  you  a 
neutral  in  the  Hainkioj  Pass.?"  "I  have  long  since 
realised,  your  Excellency,  that  I  was  wrong  in  doing  what 
I  did  then.  I  have  to  thank  you  for  many  courtesies ;  and 
you  will  add  another  if  you  will  allow  me  to  remain  until 
this  battle  is  decided."  "Oh,  certainly!"  was  his  reply 
as  he  turned  away  abruptly. 

It  was  a  strange  thing  that  the  very  message  which 
Gourko  would  have  entrusted  to  me  should  have  either 
been  wrongly  communicated  or  disregarded  by  whomso- 
ever received  it.  The  volleys  which  Gourko  wished  to  be 
delivered  last  were  delivered  first.  "  It  was,"  he  said  after- 
wards in  his  despatch,  "  with  a  sinking  heart  that  I  realised 
what  was  now  inevitable  :  in  place  of  the  simultaneous 
assault  at  all  points  which  I  had  intended,  there  were  going 
to  be  isolated  assaults  one  after  another,  of  which  the  suc- 
cess was  more  than  doubtful."  His  gallopers  had  returned 
to  him,  and  he  sent  them  back  again  at  speed  to  bid  the 
troops  wait  no  longer  for  the  signal,  but  immediately  to 
support  the  attack  which  the  right  column  had  already 
entered  upon.  The  attacks  were  delivered ;  but  instead 
of  being  together  they  were  made  one  after  another,  and 
all  failed.  The  Turkish  fire  was  so  murderous  that  no  one 
body  could  reach  the  redoubt.  But  there  was  no  recoiling ; 
unable  to  charge  home,  the  several  detachments  lay  down 
under  whatever  shelter  they  could  find  and  maintained  a 


The  Siege  of  Plevna  207 

steady  fire.  The  artillery  had  to  cease  firing  altogether, 
owing  to  the  proximity  to  the  redoubt  of  its  own  troops, 
some  of  whom  were  actually  in  the  ditch  of  the  work. 
They  could  not  be  withdrawn  so  as  to  enable  the  guns  to 
renew  the  cannonade  ;  the  losses  would  have  been  im- 
mense and  a  retirement  however  short  would  have  injured 
their  viorale  and  might  indeed  have  caused  a  panic.  There 
was  nothing  for  it  but  that  the  troops  should  remain  where 
they  were  until  nightfall,  when  they  could  either  be  with- 
drawn or  renew  the  assault. 

This  was  Gourko's  project,  but  the  gallant  men  whom 
he  commanded  took  the  matter  into  their  own  hands  of 
their  own  intuition,  without  any  suggestion  on  the  part  of 
their  officers.  They  had  tried  it  Gourko's  way,  and  that 
had  failed  ;  but  they  did  not  intend  to  be  thwarted,  and 
they  set  about  doing  it  according  to  their  own  way.  It 
was  at  4  p.m.  that  the  last  of  the  attacks  ordered  by 
Gourko  came  to  an  unsuccessful  ending.  By-and-by  a 
few  daring  fellows  sprang  out  of  the  lunette,  darted  across 
the  road  and  got  shelter  in  and  behind  the  little  stone  post- 
house  on  the  further  side.  Others  found  cover  behind  a 
straw-stack  close  by.  Presently  it  became  the  swagger 
thing  to  do  in  the  face  of  the  less  courageous  for  the  more 
adventurous  to  jump  out  of  the  lunette,  saunter  across  the 
road,  and  gain  the  stone  house  or  the  lee  of  the  straw-stack. 
The  fellows  took  to  daring  each  other,  the  inspiration  to 
get  forward  caught  hold  ;  the  occupants  of  the  stone  house 
and  the  shelterers  behind  the  stackyard  quitted  their  cover, 
darted  forward  up  the  steep  slope,  and,  those  of  them  who 
were  not  shot  down  on  the  way,  jumped  down  into  the  ditch 
of  the  redoubt  and  held  on  there.     The  lucky  ones  who  had 


2o8  Czar  and  Sultan 

reached  the  ditch  found  there  to  their  great  surprise  that 
they  were  perfectly  safe,  since  the  Turks  could  not  fire  on 
them,  as  to  do  so  they  would  have  to  mount  on  to  the 
parapet,  and  that,  owing  to  the  steadily  maintained  Rus- 
sian fire  all  round  the  environment,  was  simply  sure  death  to 
the  man  who  should  so  expose  himself.  The  men  who  had 
attained  the  ditch  kept  instigating  and  beckoning  to  their 
fellows  to  follow  them  into  their  unexpected  haven  of 
refuge ;  and  the  hints  were  taken  so  freely  that  in  course 
of  time  the  ditch  of  the  redoubt  was  pretty  well  full  of 
Russians  squatting  in  it  right  under  the  weapons  of  the 
enemy.  The  Turks  did  their  best  to  make  things  uncom- 
fortable for  their  undesired  neighbours  by  heaving  stones 
and  logs  of  wood  over  the  parapet  into  the  ditch,  to  which 
rough  compliments  the  visitors  retaliated  with  clods  and 
loose  pebbles,  while  others  busied  themselves  in  hewing 
steps  in  the  steep  scarp  of  the  ditch  by  which,  when  the 
time  should  come,  they  might  mount  the  more  easily  to 
the  slope  of  the  parapet.  The  numbers  of  the  occupants 
of  the  ditches  grew  as  the  dusk  set  in.  I  was  curious  to 
learn  by  what  signal  they  at  length  with  one  accord  all 
round  the  work  clambered  up  its  face  and  sprang  down 
into  its  interior.  The  simultaneous  assault  which  Gourko 
was  unable  to  attain  unto,  the  soldier-men  by  some  mag- 
netic freemasonry  of  their  own  accomplished  with  a 
thoroughness  which  proved  that  the  Russian  soldiers  of  the 
Guard,  whatever  might  be  the  case  with  those  of  the  line, 
had  no  lack  of  intelligence  and  were  able  so  to  act  on  their 
own  initiative  as  to  bring  off  a  completely  successful  com- 
bination. General  Ellis  II.,  who  commanded  two  battalions 
of  the  Ismailoff  regiment  which  he  brought  forward  several 


The  Siege  of  Plevna  209 

hundred  paces  crawling  on  hands  and  knees  until  within  a 
few  paces  of  the  edge  of  the  ditch  whence  he  and  they 
came  with  a  rush,  considered  that  it  was  that  final  rush  of 
his  which  gave  the  stimulus.  But  that  at  the  most  could 
only  have  been  partial,  since  his  onslaught  was  against  but 
one  face  of  the  work,  whereas  the  action  of  the  men  in  the 
ditch  was  as  if  prompted  by  a  simultaneous  impulse  all 
round  the  polygon. 

The  assailants,  once  inside,  fell  upon  the  Turks  and 
slaughtered  them  like  sheep.  Within  the  narrow  enclosed 
spaces  of  the  redoubt  men  fought  hand-in-hand  in  one  cor- 
ner, and  the  Turks  waved  the  white  flag  in  another  only  to 
gain  time  to  gather  under  it  for  another  desperate  and 
treacherous  onslaught.  The  work  of  slaughter  was  finished 
by  seven  o'clock  and  the  scene  of  carnage  was  left  to  the 
dead  and  wounded,  of  which  latter  unfortunates  many  lay 
neglected  all  night  long,  bleeding  away  their  lives  for  want 
of  the  attention  which  in  many  instances  would  have  saved 
them. 

When  I  recounted  to  MacGahan  the  story  of  Gorni- 
Dubnik,  that  shrewd  and  experienced  man  remarked: 
"This  first  battle  of  the  Russian  Guard  has  proved  them 
the  best  soldiers  in  the  army,  because  while  clinging  ever 
to  the  determination  of  carrying  the  redoubt  as  their  gov- 
erning motive,  they  had  shrewdness  enough  to  recognise 
the  value  of  cover  as  a  means  of  effecting  with  the  least 
loss  the  capture  of  a  redoubt  which  would  have  held  out 
just  as  long  as  its  ammunition  would  have  lasted  and  as 
long  as  men  should  have  been  hurled  against  it  in  masses, 
for  nothing  solid  could  stand  against  its  fire.  The  Guards 
have  learned  in  one  day  what  the  infantry  of  the  line  have 


2IO  Czar  and  Sultan 

failed  to  find  out  in  all  their  fighting  of  the  summer  and 
autumn.  The  regiments  which  fought  at  Gorni-Dubnik 
will  never  forget  the  lesson  they  have  learned  there.  No 
doubt  they  had  been  sedulously  trained  in  the  home  camp 
of  exercise  to  deploy  in  skirmishing  order  and  to  take 
cover  while  firing ;  but  until  the  day  of  Gorni-Dubnik 
probably  nine  out  of  ten  had  never  practically  understood 
what  cover  really  means  to  the  skilled  and  crafty  soldier. 
The  Guards,  the  picked  men  of  all  Russia,  have  proved 
themselves  better  soldiers  than  the  honest  stupid  soldiers 
of  the  line,  in  that  in  a  single  day  they  have  discarded  all 
the  woodenness  of  their  parade  training  and  have  won  an 
important  victory  in  the  only  way  it  was  possible  to  obtain 
success ;  and  this  of  their  own  spontaneous  accord,  without 
any  previous  tuition  and  even  indeed  by  going  counter  to 
the  expressed  intention  of  their  commanders,  who  pointed 
at  the  great  redoubt  and  with  a  wave  of  the  hand  exclaimed 
'  Come  on  and  let  us  get  into  it ! '  —  meaning  all  the  time 
to  suggest '  Let  us  take  it  with  a  rush  ! '  which  was  prac- 
tically impossible.  The  officers  tried  this  game,  for  to  do 
them  justice,  their  word  is  never  '  Go  ! '  but  always  '  Come  !  ' 
and  they  suffer  accordingly,  as  the  casualties  among  the 
officers  at  Gorni-Dubnik  proved.  The  generals  and  colonels 
had  their  innings  and  either  paid  for  their  failure  with  their 
lives  or  honestly  owned  to  their  failure  ;  so  the  soldiers 
took  the  problem  into  their  own  hands  and  solved  it  in  the 
only  way  practicable  in  the  circumstances.  And  this  — 
the  spontaneous  self-helpful  initiative  on  the  part  of  the 
soldiers  —  is  the  reason  why  I  consider  the  battle  of  Gorni- 
Dubnik  as  the  most  interesting  piece  of  fighting  in  all 
the  war." 


The  Siege  of  Plevna  2 1 1 

The  Turks  lost  in  killed  and  wounded  about  1,500  men. 
There  fell  into  the  Russian  hands  a  Pasha,  53  officers  and 
2,250  unwounded  men  :  a  standard,  4  guns  and  a  great 
quantity  of  rifles  and  ammunition.  But  when  the  news 
reached  Russia  of  what  the  victory  had  cost,  a  great  wail 
went  up,  and  Gourko  was  warned  that  Russia  would  not 
endure  such  another  wholesale  massacre  of  her  corps  d' elite. 
The  best  blood  of  the  Empire  had  soaked  into  the  brown 
earth  around  the  redoubt  of  Gorni-Dubnik.  Two  brigade 
commanders  and  four  staff  officers  had  been  wounded,  two 
commanders  of  regiments  and  one  battalion  commander 
killed,  one  regiment  commander  and  three*colonels  wounded. 
Of  field  and  company  officers,  all  men  of  rank  and  family, 
116  were  among  the  gross  total  of  over  3,300  killed  and 
wounded  in  the  capture  of  one  weak  although  obstinately 
defended  redoubt.  "There  must  be  no  more  of  this!" 
said  the  Emperor  warningly  to  Gourko,  as  we  heard,  to 
which  caution  Gourko  responded  by  tendering  the  resigna- 
tion of  his  command.  That  was  not  accepted,  and  he  was 
well  advised  when  he  altered  his  tactics.  But  to  this  day, 
so  I  have  heard,  St.  Petersburg  and  Moscow  have  never 
forgiven  him. 

When  the  fighting  ended  the  headquarters  staff  returned 
through  the  darkness  to  Cirakova.  I  had  left  in  Prince 
Tzeretleff's  tent  some  belongings  which  I  could  not  easily 
spare,  and  I  accompanied  the  cortege,  but  kept  away  from 
the  staff  and  rode  in  rear  of  it  with  the  captain  command- 
ing the  escort.  Before  we  reached  the  ford  Prince  Tzeret- 
leff  came  riding  from  the  front,  and  I  heard  him  more  than 
once  call  out  my  name.  I  answered  and  rode  forward  to 
meet  him,  when  he  said  simply  :  "  General  Gourko  desires 


2 1  2  Czar  and  Sultan 

to  speak  with  you."  I  pressed  on,  certain  that  I  was  to  be 
told  that  I  was  to  be  forbidden  to  enter  the  camp.  Recog- 
nising the  general  in  the  moonlight,  I  moved  up  alongside 
of  him  and  mentioned  Prince  Tzeretleff's  message.  "  Ah  ! 
yes,  Mr.  Carnegie,"  said  Gourko  in  English.  "  I  wish  to 
tell  you  that  I  behaved  badly  this  afternoon.  I  was  much 
disturbed,  and  at  the  moment  I  forgot  myself.  You  were 
in  the  right,  and  I  think  the  better  of  you  that  you  held 
your  own  against  me.  I  desire  to  apologise  to  you,  and 
beg  you  to  forget  an  incident  which  I  sincerely  regret." 
As  you  may  believe,  my  boys,  I  was  not  a  little  moved  and 
for  a  few  moments  could  not  control  my  voice  ;  but  at 
length  stammered  out  a  few  words  expressing  my  sense  of 
the  general's  graceful  and  handsome  expressions  —  the 
more  so  because  he  must  have  had  so  many  things  of  deep 
importance  with  which  to  concern  himself.  He  gave  me 
his  hand,  and  desired  that  I  should  sup  with  him  and 
Prince  Tzeretleff  when  we  should  reach  the  camp.  Ever 
after  this  little  episode  General  Gourko  was  kindness  itself 
to  me. 

The  troops  which  had  at  length  won  the  position  of 
Gorni-Dubnik  spent  the  night  in  and  about  the  redoubt, 
and  next  morning  Gourko's  headquarters  were  moved  to 
the  adjacent  village.  There  were  enemies  on  both  sides 
of  him,  and  the  general  promptly  set  about  fortifying  his 
position  and  protecting  his  flanks.  The  Second  Guard 
Division  garrisoned  the  works  which  on  the  previous  even- 
ing had  been  captured  from  the  Turks,  with  a  brigade 
thrown  forward  on  the  road  towards  Telis.  During  the 
fighting  inside  the  redoubt  we  had  noticed  the  sudden  out- 
burst of  a  great  volume  of  flame  which  illuminated  the 


The  Siege  of  Plevna  2 1 3 

whole  vicinity,  but  the  origin  of  which  was  not  immediately 
known.  The  day  after  the  battle  I  happened  to  meet 
among  the  Turkish  prisoners  a  Hungarian  army-surgeon, 
who  told  me  that  before  the  actual  storm  was  delivered 
Achmet  Hefzi  Pasha,  the  gallant  Albanian  commandant 
of  the  redoubt,  had  determined  to  surrender  since  the  am- 
munition was  exhausted,  and  that  by  way  of  intimating 
the  surrender  a  white  shirt  which  the  Hungarian  doctor 
stripped  himself  of  for  the  purpose  was  hoisted  on  a  pole  ; 
but  that  the  Russians  had  taken  no  notice  of  this  apology 
for  a  white  flag.  He  assured  me  that  the  Russians  con- 
tinued to  fire  on  the  Turks  after  the  works  had  been  car- 
ried, and  added  that  the  blaze  we  had  seen  rose  from  the 
Turkish  huts  built  of  dry  branches  which  had  been  fired 
by  the  Russians  and  in  which  a  number  of  Turkish 
wounded  soldiers  were  burned  to  death. 

The  Russian  attack  on  Telis  on  the  24th  had  been  badly 
managed,  and  the  force  consisting  as  it  did  of  only  one 
infantry  regiment  and  twelve  guns,  was  far  too  weak. 
After  an  hour's  artillery  firing  the  infantry  had  advanced, 
had  driven  the  Turks  out  of  some  rifle-pits  about  200  yards 
in  front  of  the  main  work,  and  had  occupied  those.  But 
they  were  untenable  being  open  to  the  rear,  and  it  was 
necessary  either  to  assault  or  to  retreat.  The  former  course 
was  adopted  but  failed  ;  and  the  regiment  had  to  fall  back 
with  a  loss  of  nearly  a  thousand  men.  Gourko  moved 
against  Telis  on  the  morning  of  the  28th.  Determined  to 
make  a  sure  thing  of  it  with  as  little  loss  as  possible,  he  sur- 
rounded the  Turkish  position  on  three  sides  with  seventy- 
two  guns  supported  by  an  infantry  brigade  of  the  Guard, 
with  a  whole  cavalry  division  on  one  flank  and  the  Cau- 


214 


Czar  and  Stiltaii 


casian  Cossack  brigade  on  the  other.  The  guns  opened  fire 
with  shrapnel  at  a  range  of  1,500  paces  and  maintained  a 
steady  cannonade  for  three  hours.  Then  Gourko  sent  in 
a  Turkish  prisoner  with  a  letter  summoning  the  Pasha  to 
surrender,  and  intimating  his  intention  to  attack  on  all 
sides  if  the  required  answer  was  not  sent  out  within  half 
an  hour.  Ismail  Hakki  Pasha  had  had  enough  of  it  and 
promptly  surrendered,  with  100  officers,  3,000  men,  four 
guns  and  a  vast  quantity  of  small-arms  ammunition  des- 
tined for  Plevna. 

The  slope  up  which  we  rode  towards  the  breastwork  on 
the  crest  was  littered  with  the  corpses  of  the  slain  in  the 
attempt  of  the  24th.  We  counted  300  bodies  at  a  distance 
of  from  200  to  400  paces  from  the  face  of  the  Turkish 
work.  About  one-third  had  received  immediately  mortal 
wounds,  and  those  were  the  fortunate  ones  ;  every  body 
had  been  stripped  stark  naked  and  the  fatal  wounds  were 
easily  discernible.  Those  dead  lay  otherwise  untouched. 
But  it  was  far  otherwise  with  the  other  two-thirds,  and  the 
spectacle  they  presented  was  ghastly  beyond  words.  They 
had  for  the  most  part  been  shot  in  the  leg  and  so  disabled 
from  getting  away  ;  and  they  had  been  done  to  death  in 
cold  blood  with  a  barbarous  and  inhuman  ferocity.  There 
lay  the  mangled  corpses,  some  headless,  others  deprived  of 
ears  and  noses,  others  hacked  all  over  with  sword-slashes, 
and  yet  others  covered  with  bullet-wounds  from  firearms 
held  so  close  that  the  powder  had  discoloured  the  skin. 
There  were  other  atrocities  of  which  I  cannot  tell  you  ; 
and  the  evidences  were  cruelly  clear  of  slow  torture  which 
American  Indians  would  have  hesitated  to  perpetrate. 
Gourko's  face  was  pale  and  stern  as  he  picked  his  way 


The  Siege  of  Plevna  215 

through  the  corpses  —  he  sent  Tzeretleff  back  with  the 
order  that  the  troops  should  not  be  allowed  to  come  up 
within  sight  of  their  mangled  comrades. 

Just  inside  the  work  Gourko  drew  rein  at  the  head  of  his 
staff,  and  looked  down  with  stern,  cold  face  on  the  cring- 
ing form  of  the  short  and  enormously  corpulent  Hakki 
Pasha,  with  his  battle-stained,  tattered  handful  of  officers  at 
his  back.  The  Russian  general  would  not  acknowledge  the 
Turkish  Pasha's  salaam ;  he  pointed  in  grim  and  ominous 
silence  with  outstretched  arm  to  the  murdered  Russian  sol- 
diers, some  of  whom  lay  stark  within  40  paces  of  the 
Pasha's  hut.  There  were  significant  mutterings  among 
the  staff  and  I  noticed  a  young  guardsman  fumbling  with 
the  flap  of  his  revolver-holster.  There  was  a  moment 
when,  to  my  thinking,  the  Pasha's  life  was  not  worth  five 
minutes'  purchase.  But  Gourko  kept  his  self-control ;  he 
spat  disgustedly  on  the  ground  and  turned  his  horse's  head 
away  from  where  Hakki  stood  ponderously  wriggling. 
Just  then  a  very  English-looking  man  in  civilian  dress  and 
with  the  Geneva  Cross  brassard  on  his  arm,  came  up  to 
Gourko,  and  saluting,  asked  the  general  in  French  to  give 
him  a  party  of  his  men  to  carry  off  the  wounded  Turks. 
"  With  great  pleasure,"  replied  Gourko  politely,  and  he 
ordered  thirty  men  to  be  at  the  disposal  of  this  gentleman, 
who  thanked  the  general  and  joined  two  young  men  also 
wearing  the  Red  Cross  brassard.  I  overheard  their  short 
conversation  in  English  and  going  up  to  them  asked  if  I 
could  be  of  any  service,  at  the  same  time  handing  my  card 
to  the  senior  of  the  three  whom  the  other  two  called 
"  Colonel,"  telling  them  that  I  had  gained  some  experience 
in  bandaging  wounds. 


2i6  Czar  and  Sultan 

"  Come  along  with  us,  then,"  replied  one  of  the  young 
men  whom  I  afterwards  knew  as  Vachell.  "  Douglas  and 
I  are  going  to  apply  the  first  dressing  to  the  wounded 
where  they  lie,  and  the  colonel  has  obtained  a  Russian 
stretcher-party  to  carry  them  to  the  arabas."  We  were 
going  towards  the  entrenchment  when  I  happened  to  look 
back  and  saw  the  gentleman  whom  the  two  young  sur- 
geons called  "Colonel"  rather  at  sixes  and  sevens  with 
the  Russian  party  which  had  been  sent  him.  I  went 
back  to  him,  when  he  said  that  he  could  not  make  the 
men  understand  him,  since  he  knew  no  Russian  and  they 
knew  nothing  else.  Just  then  Tzeretleff  came  up,  spoke 
to  the  colonel  in  English  and  ordered  the  men  to  yoke 
bullocks  into  the  empty  arabas,  go  to  the  trenches,  and 
bring  the  wounded  lying  there  back  to  the  house  to  which 
the  English  gentleman  would  lead  them.  The  "  Colonel," 
who  now  gave  his  name  as  Colonel  Coope  of  the  Imperial 
Ottoman  Gendarmerie,  started  off  to  the  hospital  with 
Tzeretleff.  I  went  and  helped  the  two  young  Englishmen 
in  bandaging,  and  saw  the  first  instalment  of  wounded 
carted  away  to  the  khan  which,  it  seemed,  had  been  con- 
verted into  a  hospital.  Soon  after  a  few  of  Gourko's 
field-gendarmes  rode  up  to  where  the  two  young  surgeons, 
whom  I  now  knew  as  Vachell  and  Douglas,  were  dressing 
the  wounded,  and  took  them  into  custody.  I  was  on  my 
way  to  inform  Colonel  Coope  of  this  circumstance  when  I 
met  him  returning  with  the  empty  arabas ;  and  presently 
he  too  was  made  a  prisoner  of  by  the  same  detachment. 
One  of  the  gendarmes,  speaking  in  French,  abused  the 
colonel  and  the  nation  to  which  he  belonged  in  the  bitter- 
est  terms  —  the    fellow  clearly  knew    a   good  deal  about 


The  Siege  of  Plevna  2 1 7 

England  and  must  have  had  some  personal  grudge  against 
us.  Gourko  happened  to  ride  by,  when  Colonel  Coope 
appealed  to  him  for  some  information  as  to  what  he  and 
his  young  friends  might  have  to  expect.  Gourko  was 
rather  non-committal,  but  gave  it  as  his  opinion  that  the 
three  would  be  sent  across  the  Danube  in  the  course  of  a 
few  days.  I  met  them  again  and  for  the  last  time  on  the 
following  morning,  when  as  Prince  Tzeretleff's  guests  they 
breakfasted  in  Gorni-Dubnik  with  the  officers  of  Gourko's 
staff.  By  noon  they  were  on  their  way  under  escort  to 
Bogot,  where  the  Grand  Duke  Nicholas  was  courteous 
enough  to  the  two  surgeons  who  were  presently  set  free, 
but  he  treated  Colonel  Coope  with  truculent  contumely, 
stripped  him  of  the  Red  Cross  brassard,  and  sent  him  a 
prisoner  of  war  to  Russia  where  he  was  prison-bound  until 
after  the  new  year.  Colonel  Coope  was  unfortunate  in 
having  no  papers,  even  his  passport  having  been  lost ; 
and  the  Grand  Duke  took  advantage  of  this  accident  and 
chose  to  have  him  treated  with  much  greater  harshness 
than  was  the  lot  of  Turkish  officers  who  became  prisoners 
of  war.  Colonel  Wellesley  was  not  permitted  to  see  him. 
If  Chefket  Pasha  had  not  been  an  unenterprising  man, 
it  might  have  gone  hard  with  Gourko  at  Telis.  He  was 
not  aware  when  he  approached  that  place  with  a  force 
only  some  8,000  strong  in  infantry  that  Chefket  Pasha  was 
at  Radomirtza,  not  six  miles  from  Telis,  with  15,000  men 
and  five  batteries.  If  in  the  early  morning  of  the  28th 
Chefket  had  marched  his  command  down  to  Telis,  Gourko 
would  have  found  himself  opposed  by  nearly  20,000  men, 
including  the  Telis  garrison.  As  it  was  the  Cavalry  of 
the  Guard  and  the  Caucasian  Cossacks  pushed  on  towards 


2l8 


Czar  and  Stiltan 


Radomirtza.  About  half-way  they  were  met  by  a  large 
band  of  Tcherkesses,  who  were  driven  back  only  to  dis- 
close an  infantry  line  which  the  Russian  horsemen  could 
not  cope  with.  During  the  following  night  Chefket  aban- 
doned Radomirtza,  the  strongest  both  by  nature  and  by 
art  of  all  the  Turkish  positions  in  the  valley  between  the 
Vid  and  the  Isker,  and  retreated  into  the  Balkans. 

This  same  evening  the  Caucasian  Cossack  brigade  of 
which  I  have  so  often  spoken  to  you,  came  into  bivouac 
just  outside  of  Telis ;  and  I  went  to  their  camp  to  pay  my 
respects  to  the  colonel  of  one  of  its  regiments,  who  al- 
though a  Russian  officer  was  also  by  ancestry  a  country- 
man of  our  own.  We  had  previously  met  at  Poradim  on 
the  eve  of  the  Plevna  battle  of  30th  July.  He  had  heard 
that  there  were  a  couple  of  Britons  in  the  camp  and  he 
was  Briton  enough  to  favour  us  with  a  visit.  Villiers' 
servant  brought  his  card  into  our  tent,  and  this  was  what 
was  printed  on  it  in  Gothic  characters  : 


aicuttnantiffiolonel 


ILcfaia-fEarfttnjie-of-pianar. 


A  tough  little  old  gentleman  in  the  handsome  Caucasian 
Cossack  uniform  entered  and  greeted  us  affably  in  Rus- 
sian, from  which  he  changed  into  German  at  Villiers' 
request.  He  should  have  worn  a  kilt  instead  of  a  caftan ; 
with  his  slightly  withered  florid  complexion,  his  high  check- 
bones,  huge  eyebrows  and  yellow  hair,  he  was  the  Scottish 


The  Siege  of  Plevna  2  1 9 

Highlander  to  the  life.  He  never  had  learned  any  Eng- 
lish, but  there  had  come  down  to  him  from  his  forbears 
a  few  words  of  genuine  Gaelic  —  he  could  and  did  sing  to 
us  a  little  Gaelic  song.  He  was  the  lineal  descendant,  he 
told  us,  of  a  Lewis  Mackenzie,  Laird  of  Manar  in  Inver- 
ness-shire, who  had  followed  Prince  Charlie  in  the  rebel- 
lion of  1745,  was  attainted,  lost  his  estate,  and  had  to  fly 
the  country  lest  worse  things  should  befall  him.  This 
ancestor  had  drifted  away  into  the  Caucasus,  settled 
and  married  there,  and  ultimately  became  a  disciple  of 
Mahomet.  He  —  our  visitor  I  mean  —  was  the  great 
grandson  of  this  disinherited  Inverness-shire  laird.  His 
particular  Caucasian  clan  had  bowed  the  knee  to  the 
Great  White  Czar  twenty  years  in  advance  of  the  death 
of  the  patriot  Schamyl ;  he  had  received  a  commission  in 
the  first  Caucasian  Cossack  regiment  which  Russia  had 
constructed  of  her  quondam  bitter  foes  of  the  mountains, 
and  he  had  passed  through  the  successive  grades  until 
now  he  was  a  lieutenant-colonel  in  command  of  his  regi- 
ment. One  day,  he  said,  he  meant  to  visit  the  old  place 
of  his  ancestors  should  he  survive  this  war,  in  which  all 
the  riskiest  share  seemed  to  be  given  to  the  Caucasian 
brigade.  "So  much  the  better,"  said  he  blythely ;  "our 
fellows  hate  inaction,  and  fighting  is  the  very  breath  of 
their  nostrils.  I  am  afraid  they  are  a  little  cruel,  but 
what  would  you  have }  They  are  only  about  half -civilised 
from  the  European  point  of  view.  You  must  remember 
that  they  are  Asiatics  —  I  myself  am  a  Scoto-Asiatic,  if 
such  a  mixture  there  can  be.  I  regard  myself  as  a  link 
between  barbarism  and  civilisation.  I  hope,  gentlemen," 
he  added  quaintly,  "  you  are  not  too  far  gone  in  civilisation 


220  Czar  and  Siiltan 

to  share  with  me  my  pocket-flask  of  vodka."  At  the 
moment  we  were  both  all  but  faint  from  inanition,  and  we 
did  not  need  to  be  asked  twice.  Subsequently  we  met 
the  Scoto-Asiatic  colonel  quite  often;  he  was  ever  the 
same  cheery,  quaint,  genial  old  gentleman,  and  that  flask 
of  his  was  a  real  widow's  cruse. 

There  remained  now  only  the  Turkish  position  at  Dolni- 
Dubnik  to  be  reduced,  and  for  this  purpose  Gourko 
intended  to  use  the  services  of  the  two  divisions  of  the 
Grenadier  Corps  now  on  march  towards  Plevna.  One 
brigade  of  that  Corps  reached  Dolni-Etropol  on  the  night 
of  the  31st,  and  Gourko  meant  to  assault  Dolni-Dubnik 
on  the  morning  of  November  2nd.  But  at  daydawn  of 
the  1st  one  of  its  outlying  works  seemed  to  be  empty,  and 
a  reconnaissance  disclosed  that  the  whole  position  had 
been  evacuated ;  the  fag-end  of  the  Turkish  column  which 
had  been  holding  the  place  was  seen  crossing  the  bridge 
over  the  Vid  and  withdrawing  inside  the  works  around 
Plevna.  Gourko  had  accomplished  his  task.  His  troops 
closed  up  and  filled  the  gap  in  the  Russian  environment. 
Tidings  were  promptly  sent  to  the  Commander-in-Chief 
that  the  investment  of  Plevna  was  complete.  Todleben 
came  out  and  fixed  on  the  contour  of  redoubts  and  en- 
trenchments to  the  westward  of  the  river  from  Medevan 
to  Dolni-Etropol,  and  the  ground  was  taken  up  by  the 
Guards  and  Grenadiers.  Osman  could  not  now  any  more 
expect  to  receive  either  reinforcements  or  supplies,  nor 
was  it  possible  for  him  to  break  through  the  strong  cordon 
which  encircled  him.  Henceforth,  in  Bismarck's  phrase, 
he  had  to  stew  in  his  own  juice ;  it  remained  to  be  seen 
how  long  he  could  endure  that  depleting  process.     He 


The  Siege  of  Plevna  2  2 1 

was  a  resolute  and  indeed  a  stubborn  man  and  he  showed 
no  symptoms  of  giving  in.  His  troops  were  assiduous 
in  the  use  of  the  spade,  and  their  readiness  to  fight  was 
as  keen  as  it  had  been  at  the  beginning. 


CHAPTER  X 

SKOBELEFF  AND  THE  GREEN  HILL 

THE  greatest  error  committed  by  the  Russians  before 
Plevna  was  to  compel  Skobeleff' s  entire  withdrawal 
from  the  positions  on  the  successive  knolls  of  the  Green 
Hill  of  which  I  have  spoken  so  often.  When  about  the 
20th  October  that  commander  was  once  again  ordered 
back  from  Tutchenitza,  he  found  the  Turks  with  their 
pickets  on  the  Red  Hill  behind  Brestovatz  and  in  posses- 
sion of  that  village,  as  well  as  holding  in  strength  lines 
of  trenches  on  the  southern  slope  of  the  first  knoll  of  the 
Green  Hill.  He  did  not  have  much  trouble  in  pushing 
them  off  the  Red  Hill  and  clearing  them  out  of  Brestovatz, 
but  that  village  was  within  a  few  hundred  paces  of  the 
Turkish  trenches  in  front  and  on  both  flanks,  and  was 
a  regular  danger  trap  where  the  crash  of  shells  and  the 
singing  of  the  Peabody-Martini  rifles  were  all  but  inter- 
minable. MacGahan  was  there  with  Skobeleff,  and  Millett 
had  now  joined  his  brother  American  in  the  mud  hovel 
in  Brestovatz,  in  the  yard  in  rear  of  which  was  the 
marquee  in  which  the  hospitable  general  who  had  a  father 
whom  he  threatened  with  arrest  if  he  did  not  fork  out, 
entertained  his  staff  officers  and  visitors. 

I  had  been  with  MacGahan  and  Millett  in  Skobeleff's 
headquarter  for  a  couple  of  rather  dreary  days  notwith- 


Skobeleff  and  the  Green  Hill 


standing  that  the  Indian  summer  still  survived,  when  on 
the  evening  of  the  8th  November  Skobeleff  entered  our 
hovel  and  announced  that  he  had  received  instructions 
from  headquarters  to  drive  the  Turks  from  the  first  knoll 
of  the  Green  Hill  right  over  against  us,  entrench  the 
position,  and  hold  it  to  the  last  extremity.  Orders  were 
issued  overnight,  four  p.m.  being  specified  as  the  hour  for 
the  assembly.  The  9th  was  a  busy  day.  Rifles  were 
cleaned,  ammunition  was  replenished,  the  batteries  were 
fully  supplied  and  entrenching  tools  were  served  out. 
The  men  put  on  their  best  clothes  wherein  to  go  into 
battle  in  accordance  with  the  Russian  custom.  The 
officers  were  busy  all  day  among  the  men  preparing  them 
for  the  night  attack,  which  was  an  entire  novelty  to  a 
large  proportion  of  the  troops.  Skobeleff's  force  now 
consisted  of  his  own  (the  i6th)  division,  a  brigade  of  the 
30th  Division,  and  the  3rd  Rifle  Brigade,  all  of  which  had 
lost  very  heavily  in  the  September  fighting.  Their  ranks 
had  been  filled  up,  but  with  new  and  green  troops  who 
never  had  been  under  fire.  There  was  a  great  deficiency 
of  officers,  and  those  who  had  newly  joined  were  as  yet 
untried.  Skobeleff  never  ceased  to  lament  those  who  had 
fallen  at  Loftcha  and  in  the  assaults  on  the  Plevna 
redoubts.  But  he  put  a  good  face  on  the  situation,  and 
the  troops  seemed  in  good  heart.  The  bands  played  all 
day  as  usual,  and  the  Ouglitski  regiment,  the  vocalists 
of  Skobeleff's  force,  sent  forth  their  songs  into  the  grey 
gloomy  air  from  early  morning.  The  fog  hid  the  hostile 
lines  from  each  other  and  the  batteries  were  silent.  To 
us  waiting  for  action  this  silence  was  strange  and  weird, 
scarcely  broken  as  it  was  by  the  muffled  tramp  of  men 


2  24  Czar  and  Sultan 

and  the  occasional  words  of  command,  as  the  troops 
drifted  by  into  the  fog  to  where  the  concentration  was 
gathering  beyond  the  Loftcha  road. 

At  four  p.m.  Skobeleff  came  out,  dressed  in  full  uni- 
form, fresh  and  scented  ;  he  swung  himself  on  to  his 
white  horse  and  led  the  way  through  the  tortuous  alleys 
of  the  village,  close  behind  him  his  mounted  Circassian 
bearing  the  red-and-yellow  banner  displaying  on  one  side 
the  white  cross  of  St.  George,  on  the  other  the  letters 
M.S.  (Michael  Skobeleff)  and  the  date  1875,  the  year  in 
which  he  had  made  his  victorious  Khokand  campaign. 
Behind  the  banner  followed  a  medley  of  staff  officers, 
Circassians  in  long  surtouts  with  silver-mounted  accoutre- 
ments and  arms,  young  gallopers  with  breasts  almost 
covered  with  decorations,  Cossacks  huddled  in  their  great- 
coats and  hoods,  correspondents  were  muffled  in  ulsters 
and  capes.  Pressing  onward  and  losing  our  way  again 
and  again,  we  at  last  reached  the  rendezvous  where  the 
troops  were  massed.  In  front  were  the  volunteers  — ■ 
detachments  formed  of  old  soldiers  who  were  to  rush 
the  Turkish  trenches  and  bayonet  their  occupants,  — 
very  much  what  I  suppose  with  us  in  England  would  be 
called  the  "  forlorn  hope."  .Certainly  there  was  nothing 
of  forlornness  in  their  aspect.  The  faces  that  looked  up 
at  Skobeleff  were  simple,  honest  soldier-faces,  some  of 
them  wearing  a  good-natured  smile,  in  every  eye  the 
wistfulness  of  trust  and  fidelity.  It  was  a  dramatic  and 
impressive  scene,  those  masses  of  earnest  serious  men, 
every  one  with  his  eyes  fixed  on  the  face  of  the  general, 
who  rode  along  their  front  giving  the  customary  greeting, 
answered  with  a  will  like  one  voice  from  each  battalion 


Skobelcff  and  the  Green  Hill  225 


in  turn.  The  background  of  grey  mist  which  had  now 
settled  down  so  thick  that  objects  could  scarcely  be  dis- 
cerned the  distance  of  a  company-front,  brought  out  the 
forms  of  men  and  horses  in  strong  relief,  and  imparted  a 
strange  picturesqueness  to  the  ranks  of  expectant  soldiers. 
Skobeleff  never  harangued  his  men  ;  his  intercourse  with 
them  was  of  a  much  more  familiar  kind. 

"Well,  comrades,"  said  he,  in  his  clear,  far-carrying 
voice,  "what  do  you  say?  Are  we  going  to  beat  the 
Turks  to-night  ? " 

"  We  will  try,  your  Excellency,"  was  the  response  from 
out  the  ranks  —  the  spokesman  some  old  sergeant  who 
had  the  right  to  speak  for  his  fellows. 

"  You  won't  disgrace  yourselves  }  " 

"Why  should  we,  your  Excellency  ?  —  we  are  anxious  to 
fight  and  to  win." 

"  Remember  one  thing,  my  men,"  said  the  general. 
"  Don't  go  rushing  headlong.  We  are  not  going  to 
storm  Plevna  —  not  this  time  ;  we  may  later.  Our  busi- 
ness to-night  is  merely  to  turn  the  Turks  out  of  their 
trenches  and  take  them  ourselves.  They  really  belong 
to  us  —  we  have  taken  them  once  before " 

"  —  And  we  shall  take  them  again!"  interrupted  a 
voice  from  the  ranks. 

"Well,  remember  this  is  an  affair  not  so  much  of 
bravery  as  of  discipline  and  obedience.  When  you  are 
ordered  to  halt,  halt  you  must,  though  you  may  want  to 
pitch  into  those  fellows  ever  so  much.  As  for  the  Turks, 
they  are  nothing  to  be  greatly  afraid  of." 

"  We  are  not  afraid  of  them!"  was  the  response  of  the 
ranks ;    and   so   Skobeleff   moved    from   one  battalion   to 


2  26  Czar  and  Sultan 

another,  explaining,  conversing,  heartening ;  telling  his 
soldiers  what  he  expected  of  them. 

Skobeleff  had  intended  in  the  first  instance  to  remain 
with  the  reserves,  so  as  to  bring  them  up  in  the  nick  of 
time.  But  now  he  changed  his  mind.  I  heard  what  he 
said  to  Kuropatkin  and  Makhram,  his  favourite  staff 
officers,  before  ordering  the  advance. 

"  I  confess  I  am  uneasy  about  the  young  soldiers,"  said 
the  general.  —  "Night! — fog!  It  is  altogether  a  risky 
business.  Even  an  old  hand,  if  not  used  to  this  sort  of 
thing,  might  easily  lose  his  head  here.  I  shall  not 
remain  with  the  reserves  as  I  intended.  I  will  lead  the 
troops  myself." 

The  order  was  passed  to  "fall  in;"  and  presently  the 
adjutants  reported  that  all  was  ready  for  the  advance. 
Skobeleff  came  out  to  the  front,  bared  his  head,  and  sol- 
emnly crossed  himself.  The  air  seemed  to  rustle  as 
officers  and  men  instantaneously  followed  his  example. 
A  low  mutter  ran  through  the  ranks  as  the  men  prayed, 
each  man  in  that  brief  moment  looking  into  his  own  soul. 
We  foreigners  felt  the  simple  solemnity  of  the  rite,  and 
we  bared  our  heads  as  did  the  Russians. 

The  sharp  word  of  command  "  Close  up !  "  was  sent 
along  the  lines  in  a  brisk  undertone,  and  the  chain  of 
skirmishers  went  out  to  the  front  as  the  successive  lines 
marched  down  the  slope  into  the  trenches  at  the  foot  of 
the  gentle  slope,  there  to  halt  while  the  artillery  should 
prepare  the  onslaught  of  the  infantry.  In  the  dip  we 
found  the  Vladimir  regiment,  charged  with  the  duty  of 
digging  the  trenches  as  soon  as  the  proper  position  should 
be  indicated  to  them.     There  was  now  no  more  entrench- 


Skobcleff  and  the  Green  Hill  227 

ing  work  with  soup-dishes,  bayonets  and  naked  hands  ; 
shovels  and  pickaxes  were  in  plenty.  The  Turks  kept 
their  usual  careless  watch  and  the  Russian  troops  reached 
their  own  advanced  trenches  without  detection.  Skobeleff 
was  already  forward.  I  followed  Kuropatkin  as  he  passed 
along  the  front  of  the  volunteers  warning  them  that  they 
should  be  wanted  soon.  In  such  a  moment  one  might 
have  expected  to  find  fire  and  enthusiasm  depicted  in  the 
faces  of  brave  men  who  had  volunteered  for  what  was  in 
effect  a  forlorn  hope.  But  I  looked  in  vain  for  any  such 
manifestations.  There  were  simply  the  usual  honest,  sol- 
dierly, well-drilled  faces  without  a  trace  of  unwonted 
expression.  Some  looked  a  little  bewildered  and  care- 
worn, but  most  seemed  but  to  be  stolidly  awaiting  the 
word  of  command,  prepared  to  carry  it  out  as  if  on 
parade.  There  was  not  a  single  striking  face ;  one  and 
all  looked  just  as  if  they  were  about  to  march  to  relieve 
comrades  on  sentry-go.  There  was  no  indication  what- 
soever of  the  motive  which  might  have  induced  them  to 
be  the  first  to  receive  the  volleys  of  the  enemy  and  the 
points  of  Turkish  bayonets  against  their  breasts.  Yet 
they  had  deliberately  volunteered  for  a  service  of  excep- 
tional hazard. 

The  Russian  front  was  within  600  paces  of  the  Turkish 
outposts;  yet  its  vicinity  had  not  been  detected.  The 
chain  of  skirmishers  was  creeping  up,  Skobeleff  himself 
with  it.  After  a  short  suspense  there  was  the  report  of 
a  single  rifle,  and  presently  from  the  Turkish  left  there 
came  a  rattle  of  musketry  to  which  for  the  moment  the 
Russians  made  no  reply. 

"  Children,  follow  me !  "   shouted   Skobeleff's  powerful 


2  28  Czar  and  Sultan 


voice  from  somewhere  in  the  fog.  It  was  drowned  in  the 
cheer  that  followed  it,  in  the  beating  of  the  drums,  the 
clamour  of  the  rushing  masses  and  the  crashing  volleys 
of  the  enemy,  who  had  suddenly  sprung  into  full  activity. 
We  could  see  nothing  save  the  flashes  through  the  dark- 
ness ;  but  the  Turkish  bullets  were  reaching  us,  singing 
over  our  heads,  and  occasionally  striking  down  a  man  of 
the  reserves.  Millctt  and  I  went  forward  on  foot,  leaving 
our  ponies  with  the  Cossacks  in  the  trenches.  Passing  a 
wounded  man  slowly  dragging  himself  rearward  using 
his  rifle  as  a  crutch,  we  asked  him  where  was  General 
Skobeleff .? 

"  Where .?  "  was  the  answer.  "  He  is  up  in  front,  lead- 
ing the  skirmishers  who  are  climbing  into  the  Turkish 
rifle-pits.  He  is  a  devil  of  a  man  !  "  And  so  the  wounded 
soldier  limped  on. 

As  we  drew  closer  we  could  every  now  and  again  hear 
Skobeleff's  voice,  audible  through  the  fog,  cheering,  direct- 
ing, commanding.  "  I  want  guns  brought  up  here !  "  we 
heard  him  shout  —  "I  must  have  guns  !  Makhram  !  hurry 
back,  and  bring  up  a  battery !  "  And  then  Makhram 
passed  us  like  a  flash,  galloping  at  headlong  speed,  and 
was  lost  to  sight  in  the  darkness  and  fog.  Now  we  heard 
behind  us  a  rush  of  shouting  men  —  the  volunteers  hurry- 
ing forward  to  occupy  the  outpost  lodgments  from  which 
the  Turkish  pickets  had  been  driven  out  by  the  skir- 
mishers. Their  advance  was  curiously  ragged  ;  they  came 
on  in  loose  clumps  destitute  of  any  order,  the  officers  in 
front  shouting  and  brandishing  their  swords.  The  bravest 
men  came  straight  on,  reached  the  lodgments,  and  went 
forward  towards  the  advanced  trench  of  the  enemy's  main 


Skobcleff  and  the  Greeji  Hill  229 

work,  driving  before  them  the  fugitive  Turkish  pickets. 
The  less  enterprising  followed  with  feebler  dash  in  sup- 
port ;  getting  forward,  it  was  true,  but  more  slowly  than 
the  ardent  leaders  and  staggered  occasionally  by  the  heavy 
fire  from  the  Turkish  trenches.  The  rearmost  of  the  vol- 
unteers, after  passing  the  lodgments,  had  not  heart  to 
endure  the  storm  of  bullet-fire.  They  hung,  and  some 
ran  back  into  the  feeble  shelter  offered  by  the  lodgments 
in  the  lee  of  which  we  were ;  most  lay  down  and  waited, 
suffering  as  they  did  so,  for  the  hostile  bullets,  always 
fired  high  as  was  the  invariable  Turkish  custom,  spared 
the  advancing  Russians,  but  dropped  fast  among  the  pros- 
trate men  further  back.  But  the  hesitation  did  not  last 
long.  The  foremost  volunteers  sprang  over  the  first 
Turkish  trench  and  drove  out  the  Turks  with  lusty  cheers. 
Those  who  showed  fight  were  bayoneted  on  the  spot ;  it 
was  not  a  time  for  taking  prisoners.  Then  the  laggards 
took  heart,  jumped  to  their  feet,  and  rushed  forward. 
Skobeleff  came  back  among  them,  stormed  at  them  vehe- 
mently for  their  momentary  poltroonery,  caught  them  up 
with  a  wave  of  his  sword  and  swept  them  on  at  the 
double.  They  followed  him  through  the  lodgments,  then 
over  the  first  trench,  and  mingling  them  with  the  men  in 
advance  he  hurled  the  whole  body  in  strenuous  and  suc- 
cessful attack  against  the  face  of  the  Turkish  main  work, 
which  was  carried  and  held  at  least  for  a  time. 

Meanwhile  the  Vladimirsky  regiment  came  tramping 
forward  and  deployed  in  line  just  upon  the  outpost  lodg- 
ments vacated  by  the  Turks.  Officers  traced  the  line  on 
which  the  Russian  trench  was  to  be  thrown  up ;  the 
Vladimirs  laid  down  their  rifles   and  went  to  work  with 


230  Czar  and  Sultan 

their  spades  and  shovels.  They  wrought  with  desperate 
energy,  toiling  vigorously  against  time.  They  had  a 
double  incentive  to  be  assiduous.  They  were  working 
amid  a  rain  of  Turkish  bullets  against  which  they  had  no 
protection  until  they  had  created  that  protection  for  them- 
selves. And  they  were  working,  also,  to  furnish  cover  for 
their  comrades  out  to  the  front  who  were  not  strong 
enough  to  hold  the  positions  they  had  carried,  now  that 
the  Turks  had  rallied  in  force  and  were  bearing  them 
slowly  back  with  a  furious  rifle-fire.  If  those  devoted  men 
out  to  the  front  should  be  unable  to  maintain  themselves 
there  until  the  busy  working-parties  should  have  built  up  a 
solid  epaulement,  then  the  whole  enterprise  might  fail  and 
Skobeleff  undergo  a  defeat. 

Therefore  it  was  that  no  man  put  his  spade  down  for  a 
moment.  Now  and  again  a  soldier  would  give  a  groan, 
drop  his  hands,  and  fall  wounded  or  dead.  But  his  place 
was  promptly  filled  and  the  work  steadily  progressed. 
Towards  midnight  the  enemy's  attack  became  so  violent 
that  it  seemed  a  wonder  any  one  could  stand  up  in  the  hail 
of  fire.  But  the  staunchness  and  industry  of  the  Vladimirs 
gradually  told.  The  parapet  of  the  new  trench  grew  so 
hieh  and  so  solid  that  the  wearied  toilers  could  rest  a  while 
in  safety  from  their  labour.  Some  guns  had  been  brought 
up  and  placed  into  positions  in  the  entrenched  line.  Its 
flanks  had  been  made  good,  the  reserves  had  come  up,  and 
the  wearied  Vladimirs  were  relieved.  Most  of  the  volun- 
teers had  come  in,  but  the  gallant  riflemen  still  held  their 
ground  out  to  the  front,  their  supply  of  ammunition  main- 
tained by  men  crawling  out  to  them  from  the  trench. 
About  two  a.m.  of  the  lOth  great  masses  of  Turks  came 


Skobeleff  and  the  Great  Hill  231 

on  with  menacing  energy.  But  by  this  time  the  protection 
offered  by  the  trench  was  fairly  complete.  The  skirmish- 
ers were  called  in ;  there  was  now  therefore  a  clear  field 
of  fire,  and  the  men  stood  behind  the  earthworks  and  faced 
and  repelled  the  Turks  with  sustained  volleys. 

Skobeleff  had  come  in  with  the  skirmishers.  I  scarcely 
recognised  him,  so  begrimed  with  powder-smoke  were  his 
face  and  coat.  When  the  Turks  came  on  he  sprang  on  to 
the  parapet  in  full  exposure  to  the  enemy's  fire,  and  steadied 
his  men  by  his  own  dauntless  coolness.  The  Turks  quieted 
down  at  dawn,  and  Skobeleff  took  occasion  of  the  lull  to 
ride  back  into  Brestovatz  in  order  to  send  a  despatch  to 
General  Todleben  at  Tutchenitza.  By  this  time  I  was 
mortally  hungry,  and  in  the  hope  of  some  breakfast  I 
desired  the  general  to  allow  me  to  accompany  him  to  the 
village.  He  wrote  his  despatch,  we  had  some  food,  and 
Skobeleff,  bidding  me  waken  him  if  the  fighting  should 
rekindle,  threw  himself  on  the  straw  and  was  asleep  in  a 
moment.  I  should  have  very  much  liked  to  have  followed 
suit,  for  the  excitement  of  the  night  had  wearied  me  ;  but 
he  had  set  me  on  watch  and  I  had  to  keep  awake,  although 
with  many  yawns.  An  hour  had  passed  when  there  sud- 
denly came  a  wild  uproar  of  firing  from  the  front.  Our 
horses  were  saddled  outside  ;  I  touched  the  general's 
shoulder,  and  in  a  couple  of  minutes  we  were  galloping 
towards  the  "Green  Hill,"  or  as  the  Russians  called  it 
"  Zeleny  Gory,"  I  with  a  haversackful  of  bread  and  meat 
for  MacGahan  and  Millett. 

A  fierce  fire  was  raging  and  the  shrapnel-bullets  came 
thick  and  fast  as  we  rode  forward.  At  a  glance  Skobeleff 
recognised  what  was  happening.     Turkish  sharpshooters 


232  Czar  and  Sultan 

had  worked  round  his  left,  and  had  opened  an  enfilade-fire 
on  a  body  of  Russian  troops  covering  a  working  party 
digging  a  zigzag  covered  way  from  the  first  trench  back 
to  the  hollow  occupied  by  the  reserves.  These  troops, 
who,  it  seemed,  were  mere  recruits,  had  taken  a  scare, 
thrown  down  their  rifles,  and  frankly  run  away.  Skobeleff 
encountered  them  in  their  flight  and  accosted  them  with 
grim  humour. 

"  Good  health,  my  brave  fellows  !  "  he  shouted  affably. 

The  men  halted  and  gave  the  customary  response ;  but 
their  confusion  was  amusingly  apparent. 

"You  are  noble  fellows;  perfect  heroes  —  I  am  proud 
to  command  you  !  "  They  saw  that  he  was  deriding  them, 
and  they  shambled  about  in  shamefacedness,  rubbing 
elbows  awkwardly. 

"  By  the  way,"  said  Skobeleff  still  blandly,  "  I  do  not  see 
your  rifles  !  " 

The  men  looked  down  at  their  feet  but  made  no  answer. 

"Where  are  your  rifles,  I  ask  you  t  " 

There  was  a  painful  silence  which  Skobeleff  broke  in 
quite  another  tone.  His  face  changed;  his  voice  was 
angry ;  his  glance  made  the  fellows  cower. 

"  So  you  have  thrown  away  your  weapons  !  You  are 
cowards !  What,  you  run  from  Turks !  You  disgrace 
your  country  !     Right  about  face  and  follow  me!  " 

Skobeleff  marched  the  runaways  up  to  the  spot  where 
they  had  left  their  rifles,  and  ordered  them  to  take  them 
up  and  follow  him.  He  led  them  out  into  the  space  in 
front  of  the  trench  right  in  the  line  of  the  Turkish  fire, 
and  there  he  put  them  through  the  manual  exercise,  he 
himself  giving  the  words  of  command  standing  out  in  front 


Skobeleff  and  the  Green  Hill  233 


of  them  with  his  back  to  the  Turks,  while  the  bullets 
whistled  over  and  around  the  detachment.  And  there  he 
drilled  them  under  fire  till  they  went  through  the  different 
motions  with  all  the  smartness  and  precision  of  the  parade- 
ground  ;  after  which  he  let  them  go  back  to  the  trenches 
with  the  warning  that  if  they  ever  ran  away  again,  he 
would  have  them  shot.  A  couple  of  them  limped  back 
wounded. 

The  Turks  gave  no  molestation  to  the  newly-taken  posi- 
tions throughout  the  whole  of  that  day,  although  they 
assailed  on  both  flanks.  The  soldiers  worked  at  the  trench 
until  its  parapet  was  made  strong  enough  to  resist  shell-fire, 
and  banquettes  were  finished  all  along  its  interior.  The 
guns  were  brought  into  regular  battery-emplacements 
pierced  by  embrasures  and  along  the  front  wire  entangle- 
ments were  laid  down.  The  troops  remained  on  the  alert, 
for  it  was  thought  certain  that  the  Turks  would  not  delay 
their  attempts  to  recover  the  position  from  which  they  had 
been  driven.  Skobeleff  slept  soundly  in  a  hole  excavated 
in  the  trench  and  half-filled  with  straw.  The  men  con- 
trived for  themselves  little  stoves  in  the  trenches  and  made 
their  soup  and  tea  in  their  field-cans.  After  dark  dinner 
was  brought  up  from  the  village  for  the  general,  his  staff 
and  friends  ;  and  after  having  eaten  we  sat  round  the  sam- 
ovar drinking  tea  and  wondering  whether  the  Turks  were 
sleeping  or  waking.  We  had  not  to  wonder  long.  It  was 
near  midnight  when  a  scout  came  in  with  the  tidings  that 
they  were  leaving  their  trenches  and  forming  for  action. 

"  I  was  sure  they  would  try  again  to-night,"  said  Skobe- 
leff. "  Gentlemen,  to  your  posts  !  "  he  added,  —  "  Order 
up  the  reserves  and  let  no  man  go  outside  the  parapet." 


234  Czar  and  Sultan 

Almost  immediately  the  stillness  was  followed  by  noise 
and  tumult  as  the  Turks  approached,  loading  and  firing  as 
they  came  on.  It  was  not  a  dark  night,  and  we  could  dimly 
discern  the  advance  of  the  solid  Turkish  line.  The  volleys 
came  closer  and  closer  till  the  air  above  us  was  tortured  by 
the  hail  of  bullets.  The  Russians  remained  still  and  silent, 
waiting  until  the  Turks  were  close  up.  Their  first  line 
was  now  within  seventy  paces.  In  the  red  flash  of  their 
volleys  we  could  see  the  faces  of  the  men  plying  their  rifles, 
and  above  the  crash  of  their  volleys  rose  the  shouts  of 
"Allah!" 

"  Battalion,  fire !  "  shouted  Skobeleff,  and  the  order  was 
taken  up  all  along  the  front.  The  rain  of  bullets  and  the 
simultaneous  storm  of  grape  staggered  the  Moslem  line. 
"  Don't  give  them  time  to  recover!"  roared  Skobeleff  — 
"fire  in  platoons!"  But  the  Turks  pulled  themselves 
together  and  came  forward  with  a  rush,  until  they  were 
barely  thirty  paces  from  the  parapet.  Death  was  making 
havoc  in  their  ranks,  but  the  brave  fellows  came  on 
undaunted.  Skobeleff  leaped  up  on  the  parapet  the  better 
to  conduct  the  defence.  The  flashes  of  the  volleys  threw 
a  lurid  red  glare  on  the  dark  faces  around  which  the  smoke 
was  eddying,  and  lit  up  the  tall  supple  figure  of  the  gen- 
eral. It  was  wonderful  how  long  those  brave  Moslems 
held  their  ground  out  in  the  open,  destitute  of  all  cover; 
fired  into  vehemently  by  enemies  snug  behind  the  protect- 
ing parapet.  At  length  they  began  to  waver — one  final 
volley  from  them,  another  into  them  in  reply,  and  then 
Skobeleff  was  justified  in  his  exulting  exclamation,  "We 
have  repulsed  them  !  "  All  night  lights  were  visible  in 
front  of  the  Russian  trenches,  and  the  sentries  fired  at  the 


Skobcleff  and  the  Green  Hill  235 

lanterns  until  Skobeleff,  who  was  still  on  the  parapet 
watching,  shouted  :  "Are  you  Turks,  or  are  you  Christians? 
Don't  you  see  that  they  are  gathering  up  their  killed 
and  wounded  ?  No  matter  under  what  provocation,  we 
must  not  degrade  ourselves  to  become  barbarians." 

For  several  days  and  nights  Skobeleff  scarcely  ever 
quitted  the  trenches.  His  staff  after  the  first  day  made 
efforts  to  make  him  comfortable  after  a  fashion.  An 
excavation  was  made  in  the  inner  face  of  the  parapet  in 
which  he  could  lie  at  full  length  among  furs  and  rugs. 
A  table  and  a  few  stools  were  brought  up  from  Brestovatz. 
In  the  trench  was  constructed  of  earth  a  species  of  hut 
covered  in  by  thatch  taken  from  an  adjacent  cottage ; 
and  there  was  built  into  the  earthen  wall  a  stove  round 
which  we  used  to  sit  in  detachments ;  —  when  men  got 
frozen  all  but  stiff  out  in  the  open  in  the  still  watches  of 
the  night,  they  would  crawl  into  the  hut  to  thaw  them- 
selves out.  During  the  short  intervals  afforded  between 
the  Turkish  attacks  and  the  superintendence  of  his  own 
lines  of  defence,  and  when  he  was  not  gossiping  with  his 
friends,  Skobeleff  was  always  studying  or  writing ;  he 
was  the  sort  of  man  who  never  could  be  idle.  Except  in 
Skobeleff's  command  I  had  seldom  heard  the  music  of  a 
military  band  since  the  crossing  of  the  Danube.  He 
alone  cultivated  martial  music  because  of  its  enlivening 
influence  on  his  men.  It  was  passing  strange  to  listen  to 
vocal  and  instrumental  music  in  the  trenches  not  a  couple 
of  hundred  paces  from  the  enemy.  The  effect  it  had  was 
wonderful  on  fatigued  and  dispirited  men,  worn  by  the 
recoil  after  long  excitement  and  brooding  in  the  nostalgia 
to  which  the  Russian  soldier  is  more  a  victim   than  the 


236  Czar  and  Sultan 

Swiss  peasant.  I  have  heard  the  Russian  Anthem  played 
to  the  accompaniment  of  the  roar  of  cannon  and  the  shrill 
ping  of  bullets,  and  when  the  hymn  was  over  the  din  of 
the  martial  accompaniment  drowned  by  the  clamour  of 
the  cheering.  It  was  as  much  the  custom  in  Skobeleff's 
regiments  to  bring  the  "  music "  into  the  trenches  as  it 
was  to  bring  the  company  kettles.  We  were  within  hear- 
ing of  the  Turks,  and  there  were  those  among  us  who 
averred  that  when  a  Russian  band  began  to  play  our 
friend  the  enemy  hushed  himself  to  listen  to  the  Musco- 
vite strains.  "  We  have  in  one  sense  lost  the  art  of 
war,"  Skolebeff  used  to  maintain.  "  Our  forefathers  were 
better  military  psychologists,  and  were  well  aware  of  the 
influence  of  music  upon  soldiers.  Music  raises  the  spirits 
of  an  army.  Napoleon  —  the  God  of  War  —  knew  this 
well,  and  led  his  men  into  battle  to  the  stirring  music  of  a 
march." 

I  am  no  soldier,  and  what  rudimentary  knowledge  of 
military  affairs  I  had  once  casually  gathered  has  long 
since  gone  from  me.  But  it  was  always  a  wonderment  to 
me  why  the  lives  of  brave  men  should  have  been  wasted 
so  lavishly  in  maintaining  this  forward  position  on  the 
first  knoll  of  the  "  Green  Hill."  The  reason  assigned  was 
that  the  occupation  of  this  position  shortened  by  about 
a  mile  the  circuit  of  the  Russian  investment  of  Plevna. 
But  what  substantial  effect  was  obtained  by  making  this 
petty  contraction  at  the  cost  of  so  much  bloodshed,  I  was 
always  unable  to  realise.  The  Turks  were  quiescent  on 
the  knoll  —  they  showed  no  symptom  of  intention  to 
push  any  extended  offensive,  and  if  they  had  done  so  the 
lines  of    Brestovatz  would  certainly  have   brought   them 


Skobeleff  and  the  Green  Hill  237 


up.  Was  not  the  curtailment  of  the  cincture  by  one 
short  mile  too  dearly  bought  by  the  loss  of  several  hun- 
dred gallant  men  ? 

The  Turks  were  very  persistent.  As  if  for  the  mere 
empty  boast  of  the  thing,  they  strained  every  nerve  to 
recover  that  barren  position  which  Skobeleff  had  clutched 
so  masterfully.  On  the  morning  of  the  14th  November 
his  Russians  saw  with  surprise  that  during  the  night  the 
Turks  had  constructed  opposite  their  left  a  strong  redoubt 
armed  with  guns.  It  enfiladed  a  considerable  section  of 
the  Russian  position.  While  daylight  lasted  the  infliction 
had  to  be  endured ;  but  Skobeleff  counted  the  hours  until 
darkness  should  fall.  Meanwhile  he  went  about  among 
his  young  soldiers,  instructing  them  as  to  the  method  of 
assailing  the  Turkish  redoubt  which  had  sprung  up  so 
suddenly.  It  was  a  strange  thing  to  see  a  general  of 
division  sitting  in  the  centre  of  a  ring  of  non-commis- 
sioned officers  of  the  Souzdal  regiment,  the  outer  circle 
formed  of  private  soldiers  eagerly  catching  every  word 
uttered  by  the  chief.  His  final  instructions  were  simple 
and  to  the  point : 

"  You  must  march  up  to  the  redoubt  as  silently  as  pos- 
sible. When  you  are  within  twenty  paces,  then  you  must 
'  hurrah '  and  the  drums  must  beat.  Then  you  must 
storm  the  Turkish  earthwork,  go  to  work  with  the  bayo- 
net, drive  the  enemy  out,  and  capture  as  many  rifles  as 
you  can;  I  will  give  three  roubles  for  every  rifle  you 
bring  in.  When  you  come  back  you  must  not  only  bring 
back  your  wounded,  but  also  your  dead :  I  will  not  have 
brave  Russians  left  to  be  mutilated  by  those  savages." 
Nothing  could  be  done  until  after  midnight,  when  the 


238  Czar  and  Sultan 

moon  should  have  gone  down.  Meanwhile  there  was 
dead  silence  in  the  Russian  trenches  ;  the  faces  of  the 
young  soldiers  waiting  the  command  to  sally  out  wore  an 
expression  of  wistfulness.  Skobeleff  himself  was  restless 
and  nervous.  He  gave  his  final  orders  that  when  the 
attacking  party  had  gone  out  over  the  parapet  the  men 
should  form  line  and  march  on  elbow  to  elbow  — "  so," 
in  his  own  words,  "  that  each  man  may  feel  his  comrade 
by  his  side."  From  the  banquette  we  strained  our  eyes 
in  the  effort  to  discern  how  it  fared  with  the  men  out  to 
the  front.  Suddenly  a  cheer  rent  the  stillness  of  the 
night,  followed  promptly  by  the  roll  of  the  drums  and 
the  crash  of  musketry-fire.  Then  there  was  a  headlong 
rush  back  toward  us,  and  fugitives  came  swarming  over 
the  parapet  in  a  wild  panic  and  huddled  down  into  the 
trench  behind  the  cover  of  the  work.  Skobeleff  called 
the  supports  up  to  the  banquettes,  but  forbade  firing  until 
he  should  give  the  word.  It  was  only  the  scared  cowards 
who  had  come  running  in ;  the  good  men  led  by  Colonel 
Kashin  were  doing  their  duty,  as  evidenced  by  the  heavy 
firing  out  to  the  front.  What  was  actually  happening 
we  could  not  know,  until  presently  Kashin  brought  in 
what  remained  of  the  two  companies  which  he  had  led 
out.  One  company  had  stormed  the  Turkish  work,  ex- 
pelled the  Turks  at  the  bayonet  point,  gathered  up  all 
the  rifles  found,  then  quitted  the  trench  and  lay  down 
outside  along  with  the  other  company.  Then  the  Turks 
had  come  back  in  great  strength,  and  we  had  heard  above 
the  firing  the  triumphant  shouts  of  "  Allah  !  " 

Skobeleff  had  underrated  his  enemy.     He  had  supposed 
that  the  new  Turkish  work  was  held  in  little  force,  and  he 


Skobeleff  and  the  Grecji  Hill  239 

had  a-cted  recklessly  from  an  impulse  of  anger.  Instead 
of  two  companies,  he  owned  later  that  he  should  have 
sent  two  regiments  to  attack  the  work.  What  he  had 
done  was  merely  to  provoke  the  Turks  to  make  fierce 
reprisals,  and  we  were  near  enough  to  recognise  that  they 
were  massing  for  an  attack  in  great  strength.  It  seemed 
as  if  the  question  who  should  possess  the  first  knoll  of  the 
"  Green  Hill  "  was  to  be  fought  out  on  this  dark  and 
sullen  morning  of  November  15th. 

The  reserves  were  called  forward.  The  parapet  was 
lined  two-deep  and  the  trench  behind  the  banquette  was 
full  of  men.  There  was  a  singular  absence  of  disorder. 
The  very  men  who  twenty  minutes  before  had  come 
running  in  with  every  symptom  of  abject  funk,  now  that 
they  were  on  the  defensive  with  something  solid  in  front 
of  them  by  w^ay  of  protection,  stood  calm  and  resolute  on 
the  banquette  ready  to  meet  the  shock  of  the  Turkish 
assault'  That  was  now  imminent.  It  was  not  so  dark 
but  that  we  could  dimly  discern  the  oncoming  masses,  and 
their  front  was  outlined  by  the  flashes  of  their  rolling 
volleys.  With  fierce  cries  and  shouts  they  came  pouring 
on  in  loose  order,  their  irregular  front  as  defined  by  their 
fire  extending  far  to  right  and  left.  The  air  above  us 
seemed  absolutely  dense  with  their  bullets  ;  it  was  well  for 
the  Russians  that  the  Turks  when  in  motion  fired  always 
from  the  hip,  so  that  they  took  no  aim  and  always  fired 
high.  The  Krishin  redoubt  in  front  of  the  Russian  left 
came  into  action,  showering  shells  into  the  hollow  behind 
the  earthworks,  and  plying  with  shrapnel  the  flank  nearest 
to  it. 

Skobeleff  held  his  men  as  if  in  a  vice.  One  mi^ht 
almost  have  felt  the  strained  silence  in   the   ranks.     No 


240  Czar  and  Sultan 

man  drew  trigger ;  the  self-command  was  supreme.  A 
low  whisper  ran  along  the  line  that  the  Turks  were  being 
led  by  Osman  Pasha  himself.  I  was  close  to  Skobeleff, 
who  was  less  confident  than  usual.  "  Who  would  have 
thought,"  said  he,  "  that  half  the  Turkish  army  would  be 
upon  us  in  this  sudden  manner  } "  The  leading  Turks 
were  within  twenty  paces  when  at  last  the  word  to  fire 
was  given.  The  crash  of  sound  was  deafening  as  volley 
answered  unto  volley.  A  few  brave  Turks  charged  for- 
ward shouting  "Allah  !  ",  but  the  Russian  bullets  struck 
down  the  gallant  fellows.  One  man  did  actually  climb  the 
parapet  and  sent  his  bayonet  into  the  breast  of  a  Russian 
soldier  on  the  banquette ;  but  next  moment  he  fell  back 
pierced  by  bullets  and  bayonet-stabs.  From  out  the  dark- 
ness in  front  there  came  to  us  cries  of  pain,  moans  and 
groans.  Still  the  Russians  plied  their  volleys,  till  at 
length  we  heard  the  rushing  noises  and  tumult  of  masses 
in  retreat. 

All  breathed  more  freely.  The  assault  had  been  re- 
pulsed, and  since  the  loss  of  the  Turks  must  have  been 
heavy  it  was  hoped  they  had  given  up  the  attempt. 
But  that  hope  was  soon  to  be  dispelled.  We  heard  again 
the  noise  of  the  advancing  hordes  ;  then  it  seemed  as  if 
there  was  a  halt. 

"  Yes,"  said  Skobeleff,  as  he  looked  over  the  parapet, 
"  they  are  forming  up  for  a  new  attempt.  They  may  carry 
the  work.  It  may  be  as  well,  gentlemen,  that  you  should 
have  your  revolvers  in  readiness."  This  hint  was  taken 
by  the  staff,  but  I  derived  no  solace  from  it,  since  for  one 
thing  I  had  no  revolver,  and  for  another,  being  a  neutral 
I  was  not  entitled  to  use  a  revolver  if  I  had  one. 


Skobeleff  and  the  Green  Hill  241 


It  took  the  Turks  some  time  to  reorganise.  Meanwhile 
the  nervous  excitement  on  the  Russian  side  visibly  in- 
creased. The  strain  was  wearing  men  down.  It  was  with 
feverish  impatience  that  we  endeavoured  to  distinguish 
what  was  happening  out  yonder  in  the  open,  but  in  vain. 
As  we  strained  our  eyes  the  Turkish  bugles  sounded,  a 
stunning  volley  was  delivered,  and  then  nearer  and  nearer 
came  the  rushing  sound  of  the  swift  charge.  By  this 
time  the  dawn  was  breaking,  and  we  could  discern  with 
what  fiery  nimbleness  the  lissom  Turkish  soldiers  bounded 
forward.  But  now  the  Russians  could  aim  more  accurately 
than  in  the  darkness,  and  their  steady  volleys  staggered 
the  Turks  in  their  onslaught.  They  did  not  maintain  the 
pace  with  which  they  had  started  and  a  good  deal  of  tail- 
ing-off  was  perceptible.  At  length  the  effort  came  alto- 
gether to  a  standstill  and  volley  after  volley  was  exchanged. 
When  halted  the  Turks  fired  very  steadily,  taking  good 
aim,  and  many  Russians  fell  back  into  the  trench  from 
the  banquette  killed  or  wounded. 

The  Turks  were  reluctantly  retiring,  covered  by  a  screen 
of  marksmen,  when  I  noticed  Skobeleff  suddenly  clap  his 
hand  to  his  side  with  a  muttered  exclamation  of  pain. 
"  What  is  the  matter.  General .?  "  I  asked. 

"  Hush,"  was  his  reply,  "  I  am  hit !  "  and  it  seemed  as 
if  he  was  about  to  faint. 

His  officers  closed  around  him  in  great  solicitude,  beg- 
ging him  to  go  into  his  hut  and  rest  till  a  surgeon  should 
arrive.  But  Skobeleff  broke  away  from  them,  bidding 
them  to  take  no  notice  of  him ;  and  he  led  off  a  cheer  at 
the  retirement  of  the  Turks  which  ran  along  the  whole 
line.     Wincing  a  good  deal  he  nevertheless  tramped  from 


242  Czar  and  Siiltan 

flank  to  flank,  congratulating  the  soldiers  on  their  staunch- 
ness.    Then  he  went  into  his  tent  and  stripped. 

"Why,"  exclaimed  Kuropatkin,  "there  is  no  wound  !  " 
"No  wound,  —  what  do  you  mean.-'"  asked  Skobeleff, 
flushing. 

"  What  I  say.  I  congratulate  your  Excellency  on  hav- 
ing received  a  sharp  contusion."  In  ten  minutes  more 
he  was  out  among  his  men  again. 


CHAPTER  XI 

IN  THE  BALKANS  WITH  GOURKO 

IT  seemed  to  me  that  life  with  Skobeleff  up  on  the 
Green  Hill  —  a  life  of  squalor  freely  relieved  by  bullets 
—  was  becoming  rather  monotonous.  MacGahan  was 
still  lame,  and  he  was  content  to  remain  for  the  present 
at  Brestovatz,  enjoying  snatches  of  the  society  of  his 
friend  Skobeleff  when  that  restless  soldier  took  occa- 
sionally a  few  hours'  respite  from  battling  with  his  next- 
door  neighbours  the  Turks.  On  the  afternoon  of  the 
15th  I  rode  up  to  General  Todleben's  headquarters  at 
Tutchenitza.  It  was  rather  impudent  on  my  part,  but 
he  had  been  so  kind  to  me  at  Bucharest  that  I  had  de- 
termined on  venturing  to  ask  him  when  he  thought  the 
fall  of  Plevna  was  likely  to  occur.  I  met  him  as  he  rode 
back  from  Radischevo  on  the  big  grey  stallion  which 
I  had  procured  for  him.  "  Ha !  Mr.  Carnegie,"  he 
exclaimed  as  I  saluted,  "  you  see  the  grey  has  given  up 
his  antics  and  does  not  stand  any  more  on  his  hind  legs. 
Come  and  have  a  glass  of  tea,  and  tell  me  where  you  have 
been." 

As  we  sat  by  the  samovar  General  Todleben  said  that 
it  would  not  surprise  him  if  Osman  should  hold  out  for 
a  month  longer.  "  I  am  sure,"  he  observed,  "  that  he 
will  not  surrender  until  his  provisions  are  out  —  he  is  the 

243 


244  Czar  and  Sultan 

kind  of  man  to  eat  his  boots  and  then  to  finish  with  a 
desperate  sortie.  Up  at  the  Grand  Duke's  headquarters 
the  hot-heads  have  been  eager  for  another  assault,  but 
I  have  argued  them  out  of  that  folly.  Do  you  know  that 
Mehemet  Ali  is  now  in  command  at  Sophia,  and  that 
General  Gourko  is  going  up  into  the  lower  Balkans  to 
make  it  impossible  for  him  to  come  down  to  the  relief 
of  Osman.-*"  This  was  quite  new  to  me,  and  I  asked 
when  General  Gourko  would  probably  start.  "  Why," 
said  Todleben,  "he  actually  marched  to-day,  I  believe. 
His  Cossacks  went  forward  ten  days  ago.  His  force 
consists  of  the  ist  and  2nd  Guard  Divisions,  the  Guard 
Rifle  Brigade,  the  2nd  Guard  Cavalry  Division,  and  the 
Caucasian  Cossack  Brigade."  I  said  that  I  was  desirous 
of  accompanying  this  expedition,  but  beyond  everything 
desired  to  be  on  the  spot  when  Plevna  should  fall.  "  You 
will  be  in  good  time  for  that  by  my  reckoning,"  said  the 
general,  "  if  you  are  back  by  the  end  of  the  first  week 
of  December."  I  thanked  him  and  rode  back  to  Bresto- 
vatz,  where  I  found  Millett  and  gave  him  the  information 
I  had  received  from  General  Todleben.  Millett,  like 
myself,  was  dead  tired  of  the  investment  of  Plevna ;  and 
we  resolved  to  start  on  the  following  morning  and  over- 
take Gourko.  We  had  each  a  good-riding  pony.  Millett 
had  his  servant  who  rode  his  pack  horse ;  a  pair  of 
capacious  saddle-bags  served  my  turn. 

Next  morning  we  bade  farewell  to  MacGahan  and 
Skobeleff  and  rode  away  across  the  Vid  to  Dolni-Dubnik, 
where  we  were  so  fortunate  as  to  find  Gourko  just  in  the 
act  of  starting.  He  was  very  civil  and  readily  gave  us 
permission  to  accompany  him.     Telis  was  dismal,  empty, 


In  the  Balkans  with  Gourko  245 


and  foul-smelling  ;  but  Radomirtza  was  still  a  pretty  vil- 
lage with  many  good  houses  uninjured,  whose  courtyards 
were  full  of  grain-stacks  and  bins  piled  high  with  maize. 
In  Lukovitza  were  many  Bulgarian  fugitives  from  the 
Balkans  —  they  seemed  of  a  very  different  type  from 
the  sordid  sullen  people  of  lower  Bulgaria.  We  overtook 
the  army  in  Jablanitza,  quite  a  civilised  village  under  the 
shadow  of  the  Dragovitza  range,  which  is  reckoned  the 
first  portal  of  the  Balkans.  The  troops  were  camped 
around  the  village  among  the  oak-trees  on  the  hillsides ; 
forage  was  abundant  for  the  horses  and  there  was  no  lack 
of  wood  for  the  camp  fires.  The  reconnaissances  which 
the  general  busied  himself  in  making  proved,  we  were 
told,  that  the  main  road  to  Sophia  by  Orkanie  and  all  the 
tracks  leading  over  and  through  the  Balkans  in  this 
section  of  the  great  range,  had  been  carefully  fortified  and 
were  held  by  the  Turks  in  force.  The  nearest  of  the 
hostile  positions  was  on  both  sides  of  the  high  road  near 
the  village  of  Pravetz,  at  a  point  where  the  road,  after 
passing  the  village  of  Osikova  and  climbing  over  a  high 
mountain  spur,  suddenly  falls  into  a  narrow  gorge  the 
heights  on  both  sides  of  which  were  strongly  fortified, 
commanding  the  gorge  and  enfilading  the  road.  On  a 
side  road  a  few  miles  south  of  the  main  road  was  the  large 
village  of  Etropol,  in  front  of  which  were  several  redoubts 
blocking  the  thoroughfare.  _ 

The  Pravetz  position  was  considered  too  strong  to  be 
forced  by  a  direct  attack,  yet  until  it  was  taken  no  further 
advance  could  be  made.  General  Dandeville  was  ordered 
to  move  against  Etropol  with  an  infantry  brigade  and 
thirty-eight  guns.     To  General  Ellis  with  a  regiment,  two 


246  Czar  and  S^tltau 

rifle  battalions  and  fourteen  guns  was  given  the  duty  of 
advancing  against  the  front  of  the  Pravetz  position.  Gen- 
eral Rauch,  whom  I  had  known  in  the  Hainkioj  Pass,  with 
about  the  same  strength,  was  to  make  a  wide  circuit  to  the 
right  and  take  in  reverse  the  Pravetz  position  while  Gen- 
eral Ellis  was  threatening  its  front.  I  suppose  you  find 
these  details  rather  technical,  my  young  friends,  but  unless 
you  give  yourselves  the  trouble  to  follow  them  you  will 
find  it  impossible  to  understand  with  what  skill  and  dex- 
terity Gourko  out-manoeuvred  the  brave  Turks  with  a  min- 
imum of  loss  to  himself.  He  had  quite  abandoned  the 
butcherly  bull-headed  tactics  which  had  cost  him  so  dear 
at  Gorni-Dubnik,  and  he  now  made  turning  movements 
and  cannon-fire  serve  his  purposes  instead  of  the  sacrifice 
of  men. 

Millett  and  I  parted  at  Jablanitza  for  a  day  or  two ;  he 
was  to  accompany  General  Ellis  with  the  central  column  ; 
I  went  with  Ranch's  turning  expedition.  The  22nd  was 
the  day  specified  for  the  operations  to  begin,  and  the  idea 
in  the  headquarters  was  that  Rauch  had  before  him  merely 
a  long  day's  march.  From  his  previous  Balkan  experi- 
ences Rauch  did  not  share  that  sanguine  view,  and  instead 
of  waiting  for  the  general  start  on  the  22nd  he  quitted 
Jablanitza  on  the  afternoon  of  the  21st.  Little  Colonel 
Lewis-of-Manar  (he  dropped  the  Mackenzie  except  on  his 
card)  had  the  advance  with  300  of  his  Caucasian  Cos- 
sacks ;  then  followed  the  two  rifle  battalions  with  a  battery 
before  and  behind  them,  and  the  mass  of  the  column  came 
last  —  the  four  battalions  of  the  Simeonof  regiment  of  the 
Guard.  With  one  interval  of  three  hours  the  detachment 
marched    all    night,    and    at  Vedrara,   which  village  was 


In  the  Balkans  with  Goiirko  247 

reached  at  eight  o'clock  in  the  morning  of  the  22nd,  the 
impatient  Ranch  would  allow  no  fires  to  be  lighted,  so 
that  no  soup  or  tea  could  be  made  and  the  men  had  to 
content  themselves  with  dry  biscuit.  The  road  as  far  as 
Vedrara  although  rugged  did  not  consist  entirely  of  preci- 
pices, and  the  horses  for  the  most  part  were  able  to  haul 
the  guns.  But  beyond  that  village  there  was  in  effect  no 
road  —  only  mere  mountain  paths — and  the  struggle  to 
bring  on  the  guns  and  ammunition  waggons  was  severe 
and  continuous.  Virtually,  a  road  had  to  be  made  most 
of  the  way.  Relays  of  staunch  toilers  plied  pick  and 
shovel  in  the  advance,  and  other  relays,  each  a  whole 
company  strong,  helped  the  guns  and  caissons  over  the 
worst  places.  A  good  deal  of  the  march  was  actually  in 
the  rugged  bed  of  the  Little  Isker,  which  wriggled  tortu- 
ously among  the  crags  and  which  had  to  be  crossed  ten 
times.  Fissures  in  the  ledges  of  hard  rocks  dragged  the 
hoofs  from  the  horses'  feet,  which  had  to  be  bound  up  in 
rags,  and  the  poor  pained  animals  forced  to  keep  on  haul- 
ing. At  one  point  it  seemed  actually  impossible  to  get 
the  ammunition  waggons  forward,  and  the  men  volun- 
teered to  carry  the  powder  and  shells  by  hand.  But 
Ranch  would  not  permit  this  and  so  the  hauling  and  pull- 
ing continued.  By  hauling  on  ropes  lashed  to  the  guns 
they  were  saved  from  rolling  down  the  precipices,  but  of 
the  caissons  three  went  over  in  spite  of  every  effort. 

Leaving  the  ravine  of  the  Little  Isker  the  detachment 
struck  into  one  of  its  tributaries,  the  Praveca  brook,  which 
takes  its  rise  near  the  village  of  Pravetz.  The  track  up 
this  valley  was  not  quite  so  rugged,  and  the  relentless 
Rauch  hurried  on  his  wearied  men.     When  the  villasre  of 


248  Czar  and  Sultan 

Kalugerovo  was  reached  at  sundown  we  all  hoped  that 
there  at  length  we  were  to  find  rest.  But  that  did  not 
accord  with  Rauch's  views.  There  were  still  for  the 
already  all-but-spent  men  some  four  hours  longer  of 
dogged  tramping.  It  was  not  until  nine  o'clock  that  the 
village  of  Lakovitza  was  reached,  and  Ranch,  himself 
exhausted,  at  length  gave  in.  The  men  were  too  dead- 
beaten  to  cook  or  even  to  make  fires ;  they  fell  in  their 
tracks  and  slept  like  stones.  More  than  one  man  died 
outright  of  sheer  fatigue.  The  outpost  service  was  a 
mockery,  although  we  were  almost  in  face  of  the  enemy. 
The  sentries  were  found  asleep  at  their  posts  and  the  offi- 
cers found  it  impossible  to  keep  them  on  the  alert.  By 
daybreak  of  the  23rd  the  implacable  Rauch  had  us  on  the 
march  again,  now  heading  southward.  As  the  morning 
advanced  while  we  were  following  a  rising  valley  flanked 
on  the  west  by  heights,  the  column  was  brought  to  a  halt 
by  hostile  fire  from  those  heights.  The  rifle  battalions,  fir- 
ing as  they  went,  pushed  directly  up  the  face  of  the  heights ; 
while  the  Cossacks  who  had  been  in  front  climbed  up  on 
to  the  flank  of  the  enemy.  The  Turks  did  not  wait  to 
make  a  fight  of  it  at  close  quarters,  and  they  fled  after 
having  delayed  our  advance  for  nearly  two  hours,  during 
which  a  sharp  fire  was  maintained  on  both  sides.  The 
march  was  promptly  resumed  and  long  slow  hours  were 
passed  in  dragging,  pushing  and  hauling  the  cannon. 
But  Rauch  and  his  tough  soldiers  were  soon  to  earn  the 
reward  of  their  toils.  What  Rauch  had  dreaded  was  the 
sheer  exhaustion  before  his  men  should  come  in  sight  of 
their  enemy.  The  extremity  of  that  exhaustion  was  very 
near  when  the  advance  attained  the  summit  on  the  left 


In  the  Balkans  zuith   Gourko  249 

rear  of  the  Turkish  fortified  position.  The  cheer  that 
then  rose  came  rolling  back  along  the  column  and  restored 
to  vigour  the  men  who  a  moment  before  were  ready  to 
drop.  Rauch  held  his  people  for  a  while  until  he  had 
them  .somewhat  concentrated,  and  then  he  let  them  go. 
The  guns  on  the  summit  swept  with  shrapnel  the  high 
plateau  in  their  front,  and  the  flanking  slopes.  One  after 
another  the  Turkish  redoubts  were  carried  ;  although  their 
occupants  held  them  stoutly  the  rush  of  Ranch's  Russians 
was  not  to  be  withstood.  The  fighting  continued  till  past 
midnight.  Next  day  I  rejoined  Millett  down  at  Pravctz 
in  the  valley. 

A  curious  thing  happened  during  the  night  of  the  23rd, 
spent  by  Ranch's  people  in  bivouac  on  the  steep  ridge 
west  of  the  Pravetz  valley.  The  Turks  had  mostly  gone, 
and  Ranch's  soldiers  had  occupied  and  were  sleeping  in 
the  positions  which  they  had  abandoned.  But  in  the 
gloom  of  the  dusk  one  Turkish  redoubt  and  that,  as  we 
later  knew,  the  strongest  of  the  whole  series,  had  been 
altogether  overlooked.  In  the  dead  of  night,  as  we  lay 
by  the  watch-fires,  we  were  awakened  by  a  sudden  burst 
of  firing  near  by,  followed  immediately  by  shouts,  yells, 
curses,  and  the  clash  of  bayonets  against  bayonets.  Then 
we  heard  voices  in  Russian  crying :  "  Let  the  poor  devils 
go!"  and  the  counter-exclamation:  "No,  no!  Kill  them, 
bayonet  them  !  "  mingled  with  shrieks  of  pain  and  prayers 
for  quarter  in  the  Turkish  language.  The  stirring  inci- 
dent passed  in  the  course  of  a  few  minutes,  and  then  all 
was  still  again.  Fatigue  was  stronger  than  curiosity  and 
we  turned  over  and  straightway  fell  asleep.  In  the  morn- 
ing we   found   that  a  company  of   volunteers    from    the 


250  Czar  and  Sultan 

Moscow  regiment  had  climbed  up  the  steep  mountain-side 
and  had  suddenly  assailed  the  redoubt  still  held  by  the 
Turks ;  and  that  after  a  short  spell  of  hand-to-hand  fight- 
ing the  Russian  volunteers  had  driven  out  all  of  the  little 
garrison  who  had  not  been  bayoneted  in  the  melee. 

Because  of  the  difficulties  he  had  encountered  Ranch 
was  a  day  behind  his  time.  Nevertheless  he  had  been 
beforehand  with  General  Dandeville,  whose  task  it  was  to 
force  his  way  into  Etropol,  a  large  village  on  the  Little 
Isker  several  miles  due  south  of  the  Pravetz  position, 
Dandeville's  attempt  to  storm  the  Turkis-h  redoubts  in 
front  of  Etropol  had  failed ;  and  he  was  obliged  to  drag 
guns  up  to  the  summits  flanking  the  enemy's  position. 
He  could  not  open  fire  until  the  afternoon  of  the  24th, 
when  the  Turks  left  their  untenable  works  and  fled 
through  Etropol.  Ranch  arrived  there  on  the  following 
day,  when  we  learned  that  part  of  the  fugitive  Turks  had 
gone  southward  to  Slatitza,  and  part  had  followed  an  old 
disused  road  leading  up  to  the  Turkish  main  position  on 
the  long  lofty  ridge  which  is  the  summit  of  the  Etropol 
Balkans  and  the  watershed  of  the  great  range. 

Etropol  we  found  a  very  quaint  and  interesting  place. 
Its  population  had  been  half  Turk,  half  Bulgarian,  and 
the  two  races  lived  amicably  enough.  There  were  more 
mosques  than  churches,  but  the  churches  were  much  hand- 
somer than  the  mosques.  The  town  is  jammed  in  the 
ravine  of  the  Little  Isker,  over  whose  channels  many  of 
the  houses  were  built.  It  is  a  labyrinth  of  narrow  crooked 
alleys  in  which  we  found  it  very  easy  to  lose  our  way. 
The  Turks  of  course  had  all  fled,  and  the  Bulgarian  in- 
habitants, a  fine  handsome  manly  race  quite  different  from 


In  the  Balkans  with   Gonrko  251 

the  Bulgarians  of  the  Danubian  plains,  could  not  do  enough 
to  prove  their  devotion  to  the  Russians.  Gourko,  who 
arrived  on  the  25th,  was  welcomed  with  great  effusion. 
The  Turks  had  carried  away  with  them  as  hostages  most 
of  the  rich  Bulgarians,  and  the  poorer  classes  only  re- 
mained to  greet  the  Russian  general  and  tender  him  bread, 
salt  and  oil.  The  Bulgarian  girls  of  Etropol  were  good- 
looking  enough  to  redeem  in  some  measure  the  plainness 
of  the  race.  They  wore  a  simple  but  becoming  costume 
of  a  scanty  robe  with  long  sleeves  and  open  neck  bound  at 
the  waist  by  a  broad  belt  of  square  links  of  chased  silver, 
their  arms  loaded  with  heavy  silver  bracelets,  their  necks 
encircled  by  chains  of  yellow,  red  and  green  glass  beads, 
and  their  heads  enveloped  in  a  dark-coloured  kerchief  fall- 
ing over  the  shoulders.  Every  evening  they  gathered 
around  the  fountain  with  their  water-jugs  poised  on  their 
heads,  and  made  eyes  shyly  at  the  smart  Russian  hussars, 
who  were  by  no  means  backward  in  reciprocating  their 
glances. 

The  strain  and  fatigue  which  I  had  endured  in  accom- 
panying Ranch's  march  told  on  me  so  that  I  was  only 
once  able  to  go  up  to  the  Groete  position.  Millett  spent 
all  his  days  and  most  of  his  nights  up  there.  He  was  a 
painter  first  and  a  correspondent  afterwards,  and  the  result 
was  that  when  you  came  to  read  his  letters  they  read  as  if 
they  had  been  written  with  a  paint-brush.  I  never  knew  ■ 
any  one  who  had  so  great  a  gift  of  picturesque  descriptive 
writing.  He  was  a  very  bright  fellow,  always  sunny  and 
good-tempered,  full  of  quaint  American  humour,  making 
light  of  hardships  and  indeed  enjoying  them  in  the  fulness 
of    his  buoyant  spirits.     And  there  never  was    such    an 


252  Czar  and  Stiltan 

obliging  chap.  When  I  was  on  my  back  in  Etropol  and 
so  having  nothing  to  write  about,  I  was  a  bit  clown  on  my 
luck.  "Cheer  up,  old  fellow!"  shouted  Millett  in  his 
noisy,  hearty  way,  — "  if  you  like  I  will  write  for  you 
a  little  sketch  of  our  camps  up  yonder  on  the  mountain- 
tops."  You  may  believe  that  I  thanked  him  heartily ; 
down  he  sat  and  painted  the  following  pen-picture,  the 
MS.  of  which  I  count  among  my  treasured  souvenirs  :  — 

"  It  is  interesting  to  enter  these  mountain  bivouacs, 
miles  away  from  a  village  and  from  supplies,  far  up  among 
the  clouds  which  at  this  season  drift  along  between  the 
peaks,  frequently  veiling  the  whole  landscape  and  draw- 
ing a  dense  curtain  of  mist  between  the  opposing  lines. 
It  is  a  little  world  in  itself,  this  camp  among  the  trees 
here.  Fires  are  blazing  on  every  side ;  the  soldiers  have 
rigged  up  their  shelter-tents  between  the  smooth  straight 
beech-trunks  and  have  their  garments  all  hung  about  to 
dry.  There  is  a  continuous  musical  ring  of  axes  and 
sabres  cutting  fuel,  only  interrupted  occasionally  by  the 
infernal  whizz  and  angry  crack  of  Turkish  shells.  Rifles 
are  stacked  in  long  irregular  lines  or  are  clustered  about 
the  great  trees.  Crowds  of  soldiers  are  gathered  about 
the  open-air  kitchens  or  busied  with  the  details  of  their 
simple  toilettes.  Some  of  the  bivouacs  are  continuously 
exposed  to  rifle-fire ;  not  that  they  are  in  actual  sight  of 
the  Turkish  lines,  but  the  bullets  that  go  over  the  crest  of 
the  hill  and  graze  the  earthworks  come  dropping  into  the 
bivouac  in  the  rear,  chipping  the  trees  and  wounding  men 
and  horses.  The  soldiers  in  these  bivouacs  dig  great  holes 
in  the  ground,  pitch  their  tents  over  them,  and  then  pile 
the  earth  and  sods  up  on  the  side  towards  the  enemy,  so 


///   the  Balkans  with   Guurko 


they  have  a  fairly  good  shelter  at  all  times.  Fires  are  also 
built  in  little  earthworks,  for  no  one  likes  to  have  a  live 
bullet  in  his  kitchen,  and  whenever  there  is  a  fusillade 
nearly  every  man  is  in  cover.  The  shells  and  shrapnel 
come  in,  but  the  men  take  their  risks  of  these  projectiles 
and  attempt  no  defence  against  them.  A  thin  cloud  of 
blue  smoke  rises  out  of  the  tree-tops,  drifting  away  to  lee- 
ward and  marking  exactly  where  the  bivouac  is  placed, 
both  to  the  eyes  of  friends  away  back  in  the  village  down 
in  the  valley  and  to  the  sharp  sight  of  the  enemy  near  at 
hand.  Thus  one  may  see  how  closely  together  lie  the  two 
armies  on  the  mountain-tops. 

"  From  below  in  the  valley,  all  day  long  and  even 
through  the  night  toils  up  the  rough  path  a  procession  of 
soldiers  and  Bulgarians  bearing  powder  and  shells  and  a 
long  train  of  pack-horses  laden  with  provisions  and  fodder. 
The  Cossack  posts  by  the  way  are  comfortable  little  camps 
where  hay,  although  brought  on  horseback  for  miles,  is 
stacked  in  abundance  and  where  cooking  seems  to  be  con- 
tinually going  on.  When  the  snow  covered  the  ground 
the  picturesqueness  of  the  mountain  bivouacs  was  perfect. 
The  tree-trunks  came  out  sharply  with  their  deep  grey 
colour  against  the  pure  white,  and  every  figure  was  in  dis- 
tinct silhouette.  Now  that  the  snow  has  temporarily  gone 
the  grey  overcoats  of  the  soldiers  harmonise  exactly  with 
the  colour  of  the  carpet  of  dead  leaves,  and  it  is  difficult 
to  distinguish  the  men  from  the  ground  on  which  they 
lie." 

I  must  bother  you  at  this  point  with  some  geographical 
details.  The  Plevna-Sophia  road,  after  passing  through 
the  Pravetz  Pass  of  which  you  have  already  heard,  goes 


254  Czar  and  Sultan 


due  west  through  a  plain  for  about  eight  miles  to  the  vil- 
lage of  Orkanie.  Thence  it  makes  a  great  loop,  bending 
southward,  and  indeed  in  places  south-eastward,  past  the 
village  of  Vratches  through  a  very  mountainous  region, 
until  at  the  pass  of  Baba-Konak  it  crosses  the  main  Balkan 
range,  after  which  it  goes  almost  due  west  across  the  plain 
to  Sophia.  On  the  assumption  that  the  Russians  in  their 
advance  would  necessarily  be  limited  to  the  high  road,  the 
Turks  had  fortified  three  successive  positions,  all  of  which 
commanded  it.  The  first  position  was  at  the  Pravetz  Pass, 
which  you  will  remember  was  turned  by  Ranch.  The  sec- 
ond, of  great  strength,  was  at  Vratches  behind  Orkanie. 
The  third  and  most  important  position  was  on  the  Balkan 
summits  right  and  left  of  the  Baba-Konak  Pass,  having 
traversed  which  the  road  escapes  from  the  mountainous 
region  and  emerges  on  the  plain.  From  flank  to  flank  this 
position  on  the  Shandarnik  ridge  —  the  main  crest  of  the 
Balkans  —  had  a  length  of  about  7,000  yards.  The  defile 
followed  by  the  road  was  near  its  western  end,  and  defile 
and  road  were  completely  commanded  from  the  position, 
which  was  in  effect  the  key  of  the  Balkans.  Gourko 
might  have  done  what  the  Turks  evidently  expected  that 
he  would  do.  Having  made  himself  master  of  the  Pravetz 
Pass  he  might  have  pushed  on  through  Orkanie,  and  after 
the  manner  of  Suleiman  in  the  Schipka  Pass  he  might 
have  wasted  the  lives  of  his  men  by  hurling  them  against 
the  serried  trench-lines  on  the  slope  in  front  of  Vratches. 
But  Gourko  had  the  warning  of  Dorni-Dubnik  to  deter 
him  from  reckless  sacrifice  of  his  soldiers.  A  reconnais- 
sance proved  to  him  that  from  the  parallel  ridge  of  Mount 
Greote  he  could  confront  along  its  whole  line  the  Turkish 


Ill  the  Balkans  zvith   Goiirko  255 


final  position,  and  that  attitude  would  in  itself  suffice  to 
render  untenable  the  hostile  lines  at  Vratches. 

The  event  proved  how  sound  was  his  strategy,  but  the 
task  of  carrying  out  his  design  was  extremely  arduous. 
To  crown  the  Greote  ridge  he  took  advantage  of  an  old 
cart-track  up  which  to  bring  his  guns.  The  Bulgarian 
farmers  rallied  to  him  with  their  teams  of  cattle,  for  his 
horses  were  useless  on  the  steep  gradients.  Each  piece 
was  dragged  by  four  yoke  of  oxen,  in  front  of  which  a 
hundred  men  or  more  hauled  on  a  long  rope  fitted  with 
breast-straps  like  the  towline  of  a  canal-boat.  With  those 
large  teams  of  cattle  and  the  strong  relays  of  willing  Bul- 
garians the  guns  were  slowly  dragged  up  the  ascent,  a 
score  of  stout  fellows  at  each  wheel  and  a  dozen  flourish- 
ing whips  and  yelling  at  the  oxen.  It  was  a  long  climb 
from  the  valley  up  to  the  ridge,  and  from  thirty-six  to  forty- 
eight  hours  were  spent  in  bringing  up  the  sixty  guns  with 
which  Gourko  had  resolved  to  garnish  the  position.  He 
thus  rendered  himself  greatly  superior  to  the  Turks  in 
artillery,  for  they,  it  was  known,  had  but  twenty  guns  ;  but 
the  frequent  fogs  hindered  the  full  utilisation  of  that  arm, 
and  Plevna  had  proved  how  little  damage  earthworks  sus- 
tain from  cannon-fire,  especially  when  as  in  this  instance 
the  range  was  long.  East  of  the  Baba-Konak  defile  the 
Turks  had  six  substantial  redoubts,  the  one  furthest  east  a 
large  and  formidable  work  ;  and  they  were  now  engaged 
in  constructing  a  seventh  redoubt  on  the  isolated  height 
west  of  the  high  road  where  it  traverses  the  defile.  Gen- 
eral Ranch's  section  of  the  Russian  position  taken  up  vis- 
a-vis  to  that  of  the  Turks  was  furthest  to  the  east ;  Gen- 
eral Dandeville  carried  on  the  line  to  the  high-road  defile. 


256  Czar  and  Sultan 

on  the  further  side  of  which  was  for  the  time  the  force  of 
General  ElHs  with  a  regiment  of  the  Guard  and  the  Guard 
Rifle  Brigade. 

This  was  the  situation  on  December  ist,  the  last  day  of 
my  stay  on  the  Balkans.  General  Dandeville,  when  he 
reached  Mount  Greote  on  the  afternoon  of  the  28th  No- 
vember, found  it  occupied  by  Turkish  outposts  which  he 
drove  away,  and  indeed  part  of  his  force  had  chased  the 
retreating  Turks  into  the  Shandarnik  redoubt,  but  the 
Turks  had  rallied  and  driven  the  Russians  out  again.  But 
for  the  delay  which  Dandeville  had  encountered  in  bring- 
ing up  his  guns  on  to  the  Greote  position,  he  would  have 
been  in  time  to  intercept  the  retreat  upon  the  Shandarnik 
summit  by  the  main  road  of  Shakir  Pasha's  force  which 
had  been  holding  the  Vratches  lines  behind  Orkanie,  and 
which  fell  back  on  Shandarnik  on  the  night  of  the  28th. 
This  retreat  was  compulsory,  since  the  Turkish  position  at 
Vratches  was  effectually  turned  by  Dandeville's  possession 
of  the  Greote  ridge.  In  the  hurry  of  evacuation  Shakir  had 
to  abandon  in  Orkanie  the  immense  mass  of  ammunition 
and  stores  which  had  been  accumulated  there  to  be  sent 
into  Plevna  for  behoof  of  Osman's  army —  enough  for  the 
supply  of  our  army  of  50,000  men  for  two  months.  All 
this  accumulation  consisting,  apart  from  munitions,  of  some 
two  million  rations,  several  thousand  bushels  of  oats  and  a 
great  quantity  of  clothing,  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Rus- 
sians ;  and  very  opportune  was  the  windfall  in  view  of  the 
bad  weather  which  had  set  in,  the  length  of  Gourko's  com- 
munications, ^ —  130  miles  from  the  Danube  at  Sistova, — 
and  the  bad  condition  of  the  roads. 

Millett  would  not  leave  the  front.     It  was  his  convic- 


In  the  Balkans  with   Gourko  257 

tion  that  Gourko  would  push  across  the  Balkans  the 
moment  that  he  should  hear  by  telegraph  of  the  fall  of 
Plevna.  If  he  went  back  to  Plevna  to  witness  its  fall, 
he  would  run  the  risk  of  losing  the  spectacle  of  Gourko's 
passage  of  the  mountains.  MacGahan  was  at  Plevna  and 
would  describe  the  grand  finale  of  Osman's  splendid  de- 
fence. Millett  had  become  very  popular  with  Gourko's 
people,  with  whom  he  had  the  field  all  to  himself.  So 
we  shook  hands  in  the  main  street  of  Etropol,  and  he 
rode  up  to  his  friends  on  Mount  Greote.  Before  starting 
for  Plevna  I  paid  my  respects  to  General  Gourko,  who 
had  always  been  extremely  kind  to  me.  He  was  in  great 
spirits  and  it  was  natural  that  he  should  be  so.  By  his 
tactics  in  demonstrating  against  the  front  of  formidable 
positions  while  he  turned  their  flanks,  he  had  been  able 
within  eight  days  to  cause  the  evacuation  by  the  Turks 
of  all  their  prepared  positions  among  the  lower  Balkans, 
and  to  force  them  back,  with  the  loss  of  immense  quanti- 
ties of  supplies,  into  their  final  position  on  the  summit 
of  the  great  range.  He  had  accomplished  this  with 
a  minimum  of  loss  to  himself  —  his  casualties  did  not 
amount  to  500  killed  and  wounded.  He  had  avoided 
actual  fighting  as  much  as  possible ;  but  his  troops  had 
to  undergo  extraordinary  exertions  in  hard  marching, 
climbing,  and  dragging  guns  by  hand.  Several  men  had 
died  from  sheer  exhaustion  in  hauling  the  artillery  up 
the  mountains,  especially  from  Etropol  to  the  Greote 
position.  The  Turkish  position  opposite  thereto  Gourko 
considered  so  strong  that  he  was  reluctant  to  attempt  to 
carry  it  by  direct  assault.  It  was  his  policy  to  remain  in 
observation   pending   the  fall  of  Plevna,  when  he  might 


258  Czar  and  Sultan 


expect  to  be  reinforced  in  such  strength  as  should  enable 
him  to  descend  into  Roumelia  and  sweep  eastward  along 
the  great  Maritza  valley.  In  the  meantime  the  specific 
object  for  which  he  had  been  sent  forward — to  prevent 
the  advance  of  a  relief  army  moving  down  with  intent 
to  raise  the  investment  of  Plevna  —  had  been  effectually 
accomplished. 

I  told  the  general  that  I  was  going  back  in  the  hope 
of  witnessing  the  fall  of  Plevna,  but  that  with  his  per- 
mission I  should  return  to  his  army  after  that  event. 
"  Always  glad  to  see  you,  Mr.  Carnegie !  "  was  Gourko's 
leply  —  "  but  you  must  not  expect  that  I  mean  to  spend 
the  remainder  of  my  life  up  here  in  Etropol.  It  is  my 
notion  that  we  shall  all  be  able  to  go  home  presently, 
and  the  sooner  the  better  say  I.  If  you  want  to  cross 
the  Balkans  with  us,  young  gentleman,  don't  hang  about 
Plevna  after  Osman  has  surrendered  !  "  I  thanked  him 
for  the  advice  and  took  my  departure. 


CHAPTER   XII 


THE    FALL    OF    PLEVNA 


STILL  Stiff  and  sore,  I  rode  slowly  back  towards 
Plevna,  spending  a  night  in  Lukovitza  by  the  way. 
Passing  from  the  road  to  the  house  in  which  I  intended  to 
sleep,  I  heard  a  voice  calling  to  me  "  Effendi !  Effendi !  "  ; 
and  entering  the  cottage  whence  came  the  call  I  found 
there  a  young  Turkish  farmer  whom  I  had  often  met  on 
the  Danube  while  voyaging  between  Rustchuk  and  Braila. 
The  poor  fellow,  who  wore  the  Zouave  uniform  of  the 
Turkish  regulars,  told  me  that  he  had  been  wounded  in 
the  leg  in  the  fighting  before  Plevna  in  September  and 
had  been  sent  out  of  Plevna  in  one  of  the  convoys  of 
wounded  which  Osman  had  despatched  while  the  commu- 
nication remained  open.  While  passing  through  Luko- 
vitza he  had  been  recognised  by  a  Bulgarian  family  who 
owed  him  some  kindness,  and  who  took  him  into  their 
house  and  nursed  him  with  great  care.  He  was  now  con- 
valescent but  was  in  great  trouble  as  to  his  future,  his 
chief  apprehension  being  lest  he  should  be  taken  prisoner 
by  the  Russians.  He  could  speak  Bulgarian  fluently  and 
I  suggested  that  he  should  make  his  way  across  country 
to  his  own  people  about  Rasgrad,  where  he  would  find  no 
Russians.  "  But,  Effendi !  "  he  replied,  "  how  can  I  travel 
through  Bulgaria  in  this  uniform  .-* "     For  a  trifle  I  bought 

259 


2  6o  Czar  and  Sultan 

for  him  a  Bulgarian  suit  from  the  head  of  the  family  who 
had  befriended  him  so  kindly,  and  gave  him  a  pittance  to 
serve  him  as  marching  money.  He  started  next  morning 
by  way  of  Loftcha,  reached  his  home  in  safety,  and  came 
to  Rustchuk  to  thank  me  soon  after  the  close  of  the  war. 

When  I  reached  Brestovatz  I  found  that  Skobeleff's 
headquarters  had  been  removed  to  the  village  of  Ustendol, 
about  three-quarters  of  a  mile  south-west  from  Brestovatz 
and  better  sheltered  from  the  Turkish  bullets  and  shells. 
I  found  the  general  and  MacGahan  in  residence  there ; 
both  had  been  ailing,  probably  on  account  of  their  long 
exposure  and  excitement  of  the  previous  month,  but  both 
were  now  well  again.  Both  were  exasperated  against  Gen- 
eral Todleben  because  he  had  protested  with  all  the  weight 
of  his  influence  against  the  project  urged  by  the  hot-heads 
of  the  Grand  Duke's  staff  that  a  general  assault  should  be 
delivered  on  Osman's  works.  "  I  am  disgusted  with  these 
headquarter  people,"  said  MacGahan.  "They  dared  in 
September  to  attack  Plevna  with  some  65,000  men.  They 
do  not  dare  to  attack  it  now  with  120,000,  although  Osman 
must  be  weaker  now  than  he  was  then.  They  are  allow- 
ing Osman  with  probably  less  than  50,000  men  to  neutral- 
ise a  force  nearly  three  times  that  number,  while  the  fine 
season  which  has  so  exceptionally  favoured  us  is  rapidly 
passing  away.  They  were  foolishly  reckless  in  Septem- 
ber ;  they  are  foolishly  timid  now  !  " 

"Yes,"  said  Skobeleff,  "look  at  Kars!— there  was 
no  pottering  around  it  —  just  a  rush  and  all  was  over. 
Osman,  if  left  alone,  may  hold  us  here  for  two  months 
longer.  When  one  reflects  on  the  sufferings  of  the  men 
in  the  cold  and  rain  and  in  the  mud  of  the  trenches,  is  it 


OSMAN    PASHA. 


The  Fall  of  Plcviia  261 

not  certain  that  we  should  lose  more  men  by  the  prolonged 
sickness  and  exposure  than  in  an  immediate  assault  which, 
because  of  the  positions  we  now  occupy  and  our  better 
knowledge  of  the  ground,  could  not  fail  to  succeed  ? " 

Although  I  kept  my  impressions  to  myself,  it  struck  me 
that  both  Skobeleff  and  MacGahan  in  their  impatience 
somewhat  begged  the  question,  experienced  men  as  were 
both.  On  what  evidence  was  it  to  be  assumed  that  Osman 
could  hold  out  for  one  month  longer,  let  alone  two  ?  Next 
morning  I  rode  up  to  Tutchenitza  to  pay  my  respects  to 
General  Todleben.  That  calm,  strong  man,  whose  sagacity 
was  not  less  manifest  than  his  kindly  nature,  received 
me  very  cordially  and  asked  me  to  tell  him  what  tidings  I 
brought  from  the  Balkans.  That  was  not  a  very  long 
story ;  indeed  I  made  it  as  short  as  might  be,  for  I  was 
anxiously  hoping  that  the  general  would  say  something 
concerning  the  situation  before  Plevna.  He  sat  silent  for 
a  few  minutes,  sipping  his  glass  of  tea.     Then  he  began  :  — 

"  I  have  a  great  respect  for  Osman.  There  was  a  time 
when  I  believed  that  he  had  made  a  fatal  mistake  in  cling- 
ing to  his  Plevna  position  when  he  might  have  evacuated 
it  to  the  infinite  advantage  of  Turkey.  I  know  better 
now.  I  have  it  on  unquestionable  authority  that  when 
Osman  became  aware  of  the  approach  of  our  reinforce- 
ments with  the  inevitable  consequence  of  our  investment 
of  Plevna,  he  anxiously  begged  to  be  permitted  to  retreat 
from  Plevna  while  that  movement  was  still  practicable, 
and  his  representations  were  strongly  backed  up  by  Mehe- 
met  Ali  Pasha.  But  Shevket  Pasha  reported  so  decidedly 
on  his  ability  to  keep  open  the  communications  with 
Plevna,  that  the  Seraskierate  in  Constantinople  believed 


262  Czar  and  Sultan 

that  incapable  person  and  ordered  Osman  to  hold  Plevna 
to  extremity.  Loyal  soldier  that  he  is,  Osman  made 
no  remonstrance,  and  there  he  is  to-day  down  yonder, 
staunchly  holding  out.  You  probably  do  not  kno\v,"  con- 
tinued the  general,  "  that  since  you  left  this  front  the  Grand 
Duke  Nicholas  sent  a  flag  of  truce  to  Osman  with  a  letter 
summoning  him  to  surrender  in  order  to  prevent  the  further 
effusion  of  blood,  since  it  must  be  evident  to  him  that 
his  capitulation  could  be  only  a  question  of  time  since  he 
was  completely  surrounded  by  superior  forces.  I  think 
Osman's  reply  was  very  fine.  It  stated  that  he  recognised 
the  humane  motives  of  the  Russian  Commander-in-Chief, 
but  that  as  a  soldier  the  Grand  Duke  would  readily  under- 
stand that  his  military  honour  forbade  him  to  surrender  his 
army  until  all  his  means  of  defence  were  exhausted  —  which 
was  not  the  case  at  present." 

I  mentioned  that  General  Skobeleff  had  expressed 
himself  in  favour  of  the  policy  of  a  general  assault.  — 
"Yes,"  replied  Todleben  with  a  grim  smile  —  "not  only 
he  but  others  who  had  not  so  good  a  right  to  make  them- 
selves heard,  were  urgent  for  that  recourse.  But  I  was 
fortunate  enough  to  convince  the  Grand  Duke  that  al- 
though the  date  of  Osman's  surrender  could  not  be 
definitely  specified,  yet  that  that  event  must  occur  soon ; 
and  that  against  this  certainty  it  would  be  sheer  reck- 
lessness to  risk  an  uncertainty  of  a  most  hazardous  char- 
acter such  as  was  involved  in  a  general  assault.  I  further 
argued  that  although  we  might  lose  only  some  10,000  men 
in  an  unsuccessful  assault,  we  should  incur  a  weakened 
morale  throughout  the  whole  army  and  some  time  must 
elapse  before   the  morale  should  be  recovered ;    whereas 


The  Fall  of  Plevna  263 


should  we  wait  patiently  till  the  surrender  the  troops  would 
be  in  good  condition  for  immediate  further  operations. 

"We  know,"  continued  the  general,  "that  Osman  must 
be  near  the  end  of  his  supplies ;  his  sick  and  wounded 
must  be  very  numerous  and  in  sad  plight :  we  know  from 
our  own  experience  that  the  alternating  rain  and  snow 
for  the  last  six  weeks  must  have  rendered  the  Turkish 
trenches  almost  untenable ;  and  there  is  the  further  sure 
indication  that  desertion  is  steadily  on  the  increase.  I  be- 
lieve, Carnegie,  that  the  end  will  come  within  the  next  seven 
days.  You  may  be  sure  that  Osman  will  not,  like  Bazaine, 
tamely  surrender  in  his  trenches.  No  ;  he  will  treat  us  to  a 
wild-cat  furious  sortie ;  a  sortie  that  will  cut  through  rank 
after  rank  and  pile  the  ground  with  dead  and  dying !  " 

It  was  ominous  of  the  end  that  while  the  watchful 
Russians  did  not  cease  during  daylight  to  maintain  a 
steady  although  not  heavy  artillery-fire  on  the  Turkish 
trenches,  there  was  attempted  no  reply  during  those  final 
days.  On  the  9th  about  noon  the  rain  merged  into  snow, 
which  fell  heavily  until  after  nightfall.  I  spent  most  of 
that  day  with  General  Todleben  at  Tutchenitza.  From 
all  quarters  throughout  the  day  reports  were  arriving  to 
the  effect  that  Osman  was  making  his  arrangements  for 
breaking  out.  Deserters  brought  out  tidings  that  rations 
of  biscuit  and  a  supply  of  foot-coverings  were  being  dis- 
tributed to  his  troops,  their  ammunition  was  being  replen- 
ished and  their  arms  were  being  inspected.  Much  stir 
was  seen  west  of  Plevna  on  the  Sophia  road,  and  great 
gatherings  of  soldiers  and  carts  were  visible  in  the  camps 
thereabouts.  Todleben  pointed  out  that  the  construction 
was  being  set  about  of  a  second  bridge  across  the  Vid 


264  Czar  and  Siilta^i 

under  cover  of  the  guns  on  the  Opanetz  heights.  The 
indications  were  conclusive  that  a  sortie  in  full  force  was 
impending,  which  would  to  all  seeming  strike  the  section 
of  investment  west  of  the  Vid  held  by  General  Ganetsky, 
the  commander  of  the  Grenadier  Corps. 

The  friendship  between  Todleben  and  Skobeleff  of 
which  I  had  witnessed  the  beginning  at  Bucharest  had 
been  interrupted  by  differences  of  opinion,  for  which  it 
was  the  general  opinion  that  the  latter  was  chiefly  to 
blame.  But  the  rupture  nowise  prevented  Todleben  from 
giving  practical  expression  of  his  faith  in  Skobeleff  as  a 
fighting  chief ;  and  although  the  section  commanded  by 
General  Kataley  of  the  Guard  intervened  between  Ganet- 
sky and  Skobeleff,  he  gave  the  order  that  at  daylight  on 
the  loth  Skobeleff  with  a  brigade  of  his  own  division  and 
another  brigade  drawn  from  General  Kataley's  command 
should  cross  the  Vid  and  take  up  positions  in  support  of 
the  Grenadier  Corps  in  the  probable  event  of  its  being 
assailed.  I  should  mention  that  the  long  flat  line  of  front 
held  by  that  corps  was  fortified  with  great  strength :  the 
first  line  garnished  thickly  with  batteries,  lunettes,  and  re- 
doubts, in  rear  of  which  on  the  gentle  slope  was  tier  upon 
tier  of  strong  entrenchments  linking  together  the  frequent 
redoubts.  All  the  works  were  profusely  furnished  with  artil- 
lery —  9-pounders  in  the  first  line,  4-pounders  in  the  second. 

I  left  Tutchenitza  after  dark  and  rode  to  Skobeleff's 
headquarters  at  Ustendol.  I  remember  Todleben's  last 
words  to  me  :  "  Plevna  will  be  ours  within  the  week  of 
which  I  spoke  when  you  were  last  here!  " 

Everybody  about  Skobeleff  was  on  the  alert.  Skobeleff 
had  organised  a  most  effective  spy  service.     One  of  his 


The  Fall  of  Plevna  265 

rascals  brought  in  the  tidings  about  10  p.m.  that  Osman 
was  concentrating  on  the  plain  behind  the  Vid.  From 
Ustendol  Plevna  could  not  be  seen  ;  but  a  telegram  came 
in  from  the  Roumanian  section  stating  that  unusually 
numerous  lights  were  moving  about  in  the  town.  We 
slept  in  our  clothes  and  were  frequently  roused  by  fresh 
pieces  of  news.  In  the  small  hours  came  in  a  spy  with 
the  tidings  that  the  principal  Krishin  redoubt  was  empty 
and  that  the  works  about  it  were  being  rapidly  evacuated. 
Skobeleff  tested  his  veracity  rather  severely.  Would  he 
guide  the  troops  into  the  Krishin  redoubts  with  the  cer- 
tainty of  being  bayoneted  if  he  was  found  to  be  playing 
false  ?  The  man  consented  with  alacrity,  and  he  led  the 
detachment  of  volunteers  whom  Skobeleff  sent  forward 
with  instructions  to  move  cautiously.  The  spy  was  hon- 
est ;  the  redoubts,  as  well  as  the  trenches  on  the  Green 
Hill,  were  found  empty  and  they  were  immediately  occu- 
pied by  the  troops  of  the  30th  Division.  Skobeleff  left 
behind  to  protect  his  positions  a  brigade  of  his  division, 
and  acting  on  orders  he  had  sent  away  his  Rifle  Brigade 
to  the  village  of  Gravitza  to  strengthen  Krudener.  It 
was  recalled  while  on  the  march  by  General  Todleben 
when  after  daylight  he  learned  that  both  the  Gravitza 
redoubt  and  redoubt  No.  10  had  been  evacuated  by  the 
Turks  and  garrisoned  by  the  Russians. 

Skobeleff  was  on  the  march  before  daybreak  and  we 
were  more  than  half-way  towards  the  Vid  when  the  sullen 
grey  dawn  began  to  open.  It  was  about  half-past  seven. 
Suddenly  the  calm  heavy  air  was  pierced  by  the  simulta- 
neous crash  of  a  great  mass  of  artillery,  promptly  followed 
by  that  fierce  steady  roll  of  musketry  which  we  had  learned 


266  Czar  and  Sultan 


to  know  so  well.  We  were  on  the  heights  of  Medevan, 
whence  we  looked  down  on  Plevna,  on  the  cliffs  at  whose 
base  flows  the  Vid,  and  on  the  wide  plain  beyond  athwart 
which  ran  the  line  on  which  were  the  Russian  battery- 
emplacements  and  redoubts,  forming  a  continuous  obstruc- 
tion. A  thin  fog  hung  over  the  valley  which  mingling 
with  the  cannon-smoke  somewhat  obscured  the  scene. 
But  we  could  distinctly  see  the  flashes  from  the  Turkish 
cannon  in  rapid  action  on  the  bluffs  on  the  right  bank, 
and  could  discern  less  clearly  the  flashes  of  the  return 
fire  from  the  Russian  batteries  on  the  plain.  Skobeleff 
sent  on  his  two  brigades  across  the  river ;  he  himself  with 
his  staff  remained  for  a  time  on  the  Medevan  heights 
watching  through  the  haze  of  fog  and  cannon-smoke  the 
deployment  of  Osman's  attack.  The  Turkish  infantry 
were  deploying  with  great  smartness  and  skill,  taking  the 
full  advantage  of  the  cover  afforded  by  the  long  undula- 
tion in  the  ground  just  beyond  the  bridge,  in  the  shelter 
of  which  no  doubt  they  had  been  gathering  during  the 
night.  The  skirmishers  were  already  out  in  the  open, 
driving  before  them  the  Russian  outposts. 

Skobeleff  became  greatly  excited.  "  Were  there  ever 
more  skilful  tactics } "  he  exclaimed.  "  They  are  born 
soldiers — those  Turks!  Just  notice  how  skilfully  they 
are  already  half-way  towards  Ganetsky's  front  and  yet 
have  never  shown  out  of  cover  —  hidden  first  by  the 
darkness,  and  now  protected  in  their  deployment  by  the 
long  bank  yonder  in  the  lee  of  which  they  are  forming 
in  almost  perfect  safety  !  Beautiful  !  beautiful !  "  he  ex- 
claimed,—  "never  was  a  sortie  more  skilfully  prepared! 
How  I  should  like  to  be  in  command  of  it !  " 


The  Fall  of  Plevna  267 


Skobeleff  then  turned  his  binocular  on  the  Russian 
defence  line.  He  seldom  swore,  but  now  a  torrent  of 
oaths  came  hot  from  his  lips.  "  Oh,  that  ass  Ganetsky  !  " 
he  exclaimed,  striking  his  clenched  fist  on  his  thigh. 
"  What  imbecility  !  Just  look  !  He  has  had  his  orders; 
he  was  warned  of  the  intention  of  the  Turks ;  he  might 
have  had  any  quantity  of  reinforcements.  A  corporal 
would  have  known  that  this  was  a  time  for  cramming  the 
works  of  the  first  line  of  defence  with  all  the  men  they 
could  contain.  And  what  preparations  to  meet  an  assault 
has  Ganetsky  made  }  None  !  His  positions  are  actually 
occupied  by  the  usual  detail  —  one  regiment  from  each 
division  ;  in  other  words,  he  is  confronting  Osman's  army 
with  six  battalions,  when  he  has  at  his  disposition  twenty- 
four  battalions  of  his  own  corps,  not  to  speak  of  my  divis- 
ion and  other  reinforcements.  Mark  my  words  !  —  the 
Turks  will  carry  our  first  line  with  a  rush.  We  shall 
retrieve  it ;  but  to  have  lost  it  for  ever  so  short  a  time  will 
be  to  our  eternal  disgrace !  "  With  that  Skobeleff  spat 
venomously  and  rode  away  to  overtake  his  troops.  Mac- 
Gahan  and  I  remained  where  we  were  ;  no  better  position 
could  have  been  anywhere  found. 

The  Turks  had  finished  their  deployment  and  now  were 
ready  for  the  assault.  Their  skirmish  lines  were  rapidly 
strengthened  and  as  rapidly  they  advanced.  In  rear  of 
the  skirmishing  lines  hurried  the  artillery,  stopping  occa- 
sionally to  fire  a  shell  and  then  hastening  on  to  overtake 
the  skirmishers.  There  followed  at  the  double  a  loose  but 
heavy  line  of  deployed  battalions  supported  by  the  reserves 
in  columns.  The  Turkish  objective  was  the  section  of  the 
Russian  front  between  the  Sophia  road  on  the  south  and 


268  Czar  and  Sultan 

the  fortified  village  of  Dolni-Etropol  on  the  north  —  the 
section  held  by  the  3rd  division  of  the  Grenadier  Corps. 
In  spite  of  the  rapid  artillery-fire  from  the  Russian  bat- 
teries in  front  and  on  both  flanks  —  in  spite  too  of  the 
furious  musketry-fire  from  the  infantry  holding  the  Rus- 
sian entrenchments,  the  Turks  came  steadily  and  swiftly 
on.  The  Russian  shell-fire  ploughed  lanes  through  their 
ranks  ;  the  Russian  rifle-fire  mowed  them  down  as  with  a 
scythe.  How  cruelly  they  were  being  punished  was  testi- 
fied by  the  numbers  of  fallen  who  marked  the  broad  track 
of  their  advance.  But  no  amount  of  slaughter  gave  a 
moment's  pause  to  Osman's  gallant  soldiers.  Their  oflicers 
seemed  to  measure  the  distance  with  the  eye  ;  we  could 
see  their  swords  high  in  air  as  the  signal.  Then  with  a 
wild  shout  of  "  Allah  !  "  the  Turks  sprang  forward  upon 
the  line  of  trenches  held  by  the  Siberian  regiment, 
swept  over  their  parapets,  slaughtered  their  defenders 
to  the  last  man  in  a  momentary  hand-to-hand  struggle, 
carried  with  a  rush  the  battery  in  rear,  bayoneted  the 
Russian  artillerymen  who  fought  round  their  guns  with 
heroic  constancy,  and  were  in  possession  of  the  battery. 

The  centre  of  the  Russian  first  line  was  thus  broken 
and  in  Turkish  occupation.  Further  to  the  (Russian)  left 
the  gunners  held  their  ground  in  the  work  No.  4  a  little 
longer,  firing  shrapnel  into  the  Turks ;  but  they  were  all 
but  surrounded  and  had  to  abandon  their  position,  leaving 
some  of  their  guns  in  the  work.  For  the  time  a  single 
Russian  brigade  was  bearing  the  brunt  of  the  assault 
delivered  by  the  whole  Turkish  army.  The  lunettes  it 
held  were  full  of  dead  and  dying.  The  soldiers  were 
exhausted  by  their  efforts  to  oppose  the  Turkish  rushes ; 


The  Fall  of  Plevna  269 

a  number  of  Russian  guns  were  in  the  hands  of  the  enemy, 
who  were  in  actual  occupation  of  a  length  of  Russian 
trenches  and  of  two  Russian  redoubts.  The  Siberian 
regiment  had  been  all  but  annihilated.  It  was  certainly 
a  very  critical  moment.  Skobeleff's  criticism  had  proved 
but  too  true  ;  Ganetsky  had  no  reinforcements  at  hand, 
and  the  interval  until  they  should  tardily  be  brought  up 
was  extremely  disastrous.  One  regiment  after  a  while 
did  casually  turn  up,  just  in  time  to  save  the  debris  of  the 
unfortunate  Siberian  regiment.  It  threw  itself  valiantly 
against  the  Turkish  advance  towards  the  second  line  and 
at  least  delayed  that  movement,  but  its  losses  were  im- 
mense. I  heard  afterwards  that  in  less  than  five  minutes 
all  three  of  its  battalion-commanders  and  half  of  its  com- 
pany-chiefs were  either  killed  or  wounded. 

It  was  not  until  10  a.m.  that  reinforcements  began  to 
come  up  ;  but  not  until  half  an  hour  later  was  it  that  a 
fresh  brigade  of  Grenadiers,  brought  up  by  General 
Stroukoff  of  the  Emperor's  suite,  charged  with  a  "  hur- 
rah !  "  the  Turks  who  were  in  possession  of  the  Russian 
trenches.  A  hand-to-hand  struggle  ensued,  which  lasted 
for  some  time  owing  to  the  curious  obstinacy  with  which 
the  Turks  clung  to  the  guns  they  had  captured.  Ulti- 
mately they  were  dislodged  with  the  bayonet,  and  the 
Astrachan  Grenadiers  gained  possession  of  seven  Turkish 
guns  and  one  standard,  the  only  trophies  of  the  action. 
Gradually  the  Russian  troops  succeeded,  but  not  without 
hard  fighting,  in  re-occupying  their  whole  system  of  de- 
fence. It  was  not,  however,  until  nearly  noon  when  the 
Turkish  retirement  reluctantly  began,  covered  by  a  heavy 
fire.     The  Russian  guns  were  brought  up  into  the  infantry 


270  Czar  and  Sultan 

line  and  volleys  of  shrapnel  were  jDoured  into  the  retreat- 
ing Turks,  which  converted  their  retreat  into  a  rout.  Some 
took  shelter  behind  the  carts  which  lined  the  roadside,  but 
the  greater  number  sought  refuge  under  the  bank  of  the 
Vid  where  they  found  shelter  from  the  Russian  fire. 

After  having  halted  for  a  time  in  their  lines  the  Russian 
troops  moved  forward  along  their  whole  front,  covered  by 
a  heavy  artillery-fire.  The  Turkish  guns  replied  but  with 
little  energy.  In  about  half  an  hour  the  firing  slackened 
on  both  sides  and  then  stopped  entirely.  The  rolling 
crash  of  the  rifle-fire  and  the  deep-toned  bellowing  of  the 
artillery  were  heard  no  more.  The  smoke  gradually  lifted 
from  the  field  of  the  final  strife,  and  there  was  silence  —  a 
silence  that  will  probably  not  be  broken  around  the  quiet 
Bulgarian  town  for  many  a  long  year,  never  again,  per- 
haps, by  the  din  of  battle.  Osman's  fierce  sortie  had  failed 
after  a  heroic  effort  to  achieve  success. 

Skobeleff,  as  I  have  told  you,  had  left  us  to  follow  the 
two  brigades  the  command  of  which  had  been  given  to 
him  in  the  orders  disseminated  by  General  Todleben. 
After  an  altercation  which  he  had  with  the  general  com- 
manding one  of  his  brigades,  to  which  I  need  not  allude, 
we  encountered  him  again  some  distance  from  the  bridge 
across  the  Vid.  The  battle  had  ended,  but  nobody  seemed 
to  know  what  was  going  to  happen.  At  length  there  was 
seen  to  be  waving  from  the  cliffs  a  white  flag.  Then 
there  arose  from  the  Russian  army  a  great  shout  of  tri- 
umph and  gladness.  The  shout  swept  over  the  plain 
and  its  echoes  came  back  to  us  from  the  cliffs  over  against 
us.  The  Russians  had  at  last  been  rewarded  for  all  their 
toil   and  hopes.     Plevna   had  fallen,  and  to  judge    from 


The  Fall  of  Plevna  2  7 1 

the  expression  on  the  faces  of  the  soldiers,  they  expected 
that  the  homeward  march  would  begin  on  the  morrow. 
Many  a  morrow  was  to  pass  over  the  heads  of  the  home- 
sick men  before  they  were  to  see  Russia  again  —  how 
many  would  never  see  Russia  more  !  Meanwhile,  at  all 
events,  the  white  flag  was  an  actual  fact.  A  Turkish 
officer  carrying  it  rode  over  the  bridge,  and  crossed  the 
plain  to  where  General  Ganetsky  sat  on  horseback  in  front 
of  his  division.  At  the  time  we  could  not  understand 
why  this  officer  went  back  so  quickly ;  but  we  learned 
later  that  Ganetsky  had  refused  to  recognise  him  because 
of  his  inferior  rank,  and  had  bidden  him  send  out  an 
officer  of  rank  to  negotiate  regarding  the  conditions  of 
capitulation.  Skobeleff  headed  a  detachment  of  officers 
who  rode  along  the  Sophia  road  to  within  about  fifty 
paces  of  the  bridge,  within  point-blank  range  of  the 
masses  of  Turks  on  the  other  side  of  the  stream.  Sko- 
beleff and  Kuropatkin  waved  white  handkerchiefs,  a  signal 
of  amity  reciprocated  by  the  display  of  a  once  white 
clout  on  a  stick.  Then  two  horsemen  came  over  the 
bridge,  approached,  and  saluted  Skobeleff.  His  inter- 
preter was  not  at  hand,  and  I  was  called  up  to  commu- 
nicate between  Skobeleff  and  the  Turkish  officers.  Their 
statement  was  that  Osman  Pasha  was  about  to  come  out, 
but  they  did  not  speak  as  from  any  authority.  However, 
they  rode  back,  and  Skobeleff  announced  that  Osman  was 
coming  out.  The  Russian  officers  had  a  fine  spirit  of 
chivalry ;  they  expressed  the  highest  admiration  for  the 
Turkish  Commander,  and  it  was  agreed  that  they  should 
salute  him  with  great  respect  and  that  the  soldiers  should 
present  arms. 


272 


Czar  and  Sultan 


We  stood  here,  while  we  waited,  among  the  dead  and 
dying  of  the  battle  whose  embers  were  not  yet  cold. 
The  wounded  Turks  lay  all  about  us,  bearing  the  agony 
of  their  hurts  with  a  calm  stolid  fortitude.  The  road  on 
which  we  were  gathered  was  cumbered  with  dead  and 
wounded  men,  oxen,  horses,  and  shattered  arabas.  A  few 
hundred  yards  beyond  was  the  ground  over  which  Osman 
Pasha's  sallying  column  had  made  its  heroic  charge  — 
ground  now  literally  covered  with  dead  and  dying.  Rus- 
sian surgeons  were  busying  themselves  with  administering 
the  first  dressing  to  the  wounded  Turks  —  far  other  treat- 
ment than  that  which  throughout  the  campaign  wounded 
Russians  received  at  the  hands  of  the  Turks. 

There  was  a  sudden  shout  "  He  is  coming !  There  he 
is  !  "  and  we  drew  nearer  to  the  bridge.  Two  horsemen 
were  approaching,  the  man  in  advance  carrying  the  white 
flag,  a  Turkish  cavalryman  in  dingy  and  dilapidated  cloth- 
ing. There  followed  him  an  officer  wearing  a  smart  blue 
surtout  and  a  bright  red  fez  ;  clean  and  fresh,  with  a  pair 
of  white  kid  gloves  —  a  regular  swell,  in  point  of  fact. 
He  was  quite  a  young  man,  clean  shaven,  with  a  round 
rosy  face,  light  moustache,  straight  nose,  and  blue  eyes. 
He  was  not  Osman.  He  handed  Skobeleff  his  card  on 
which  he  was  thus  designated : 


STcfib  Bfo, 

Cf)cf  He  I'ttatrfflajor 

ic  I'nrmcc 

tjf  HSitiliin. 

The  Fall  of  Plevna  273 

Skobeleff  saluted  the  Turkish  officer  and  informed  his 
companions  of  his  name  and  rank.  There  was  a  general 
movement  of  astonishment.  Could  this  young  man  with 
the  boyish  face  be  Osman's  second  self,  who  must  have 
had  so  great  a  responsibility  in  the  organisation  and  main- 
tenance of  the  great  defence }  It  seemed  strange,  but 
it  was  true.  MacGahan  remarked  to  me  in  an  undertone  : 
"  The  Turks  have  the  merit  at  least  of  not  being  afraid 
of  young  men !  "  Tefik  seemed  curiously  embarrassed. 
He  spoke  with  great  deliberation. 

"  Osman  Pasha,"  he  said,  "  is  wounded." 

"  Not  severely,  we  all  earnestly  hope !  "  exclaimed  Sko- 
beleff. 

"  I  do  not  know." 

"  Where  is  his  Excellency  .-*  " 

"There,"  answered  Tefik,  pointing  to  a  small  house  on 
the  roadside  just  beyond  the  bridge. 

It  was  clear  that  Tefik,  whether  constitutionally  or  be- 
cause of  emotion  which  he  had  difficulty  in  suppressing, 
was  resolutely  taciturn. 

"General  Ganetsky,"  said  Skobeleff,  "is  in  command 
here.  He  will  be  here  immediately  ;  perhaps  you  would 
care  to  speak  with  him."  Tefik  made  a  silent  bow.  The 
situation  was  becoming  very  embarrassing  when  General 
Stroukoff  presently  arrived.  He  announced  that  he  had 
powers  to  treat,  and  he  asked  the  Turkish  officer  whether 
he  was  authorised  by  Osman  Pasha  to  enter  into  negotia- 
tions. What  passed  I  did  not  gather,  but  understood  that 
Tefik  had  replied  in  the  negative.  He  made  a  compre- 
hensive bow  and  galloped  away  back  across  the  bridge. 

General   Ganetsky   came    up    after   a  short  delay,  and 


2  74  Czar  and  Sultan 


then  we  crossed  the  bridge  and  were  in  the  midst  of  the 
Turkish  army.  We  were  in  the  centre  of  a  thick  crowd 
of  men  with  arms  in  their  hands,  who  two  hours  previ- 
ously had  been  engaged  in  mortal  strife  with  the  men 
whom  they  now  surrounded.  When  we  were  abreast  of 
the  little  house  our  group  halted  and  Generals  Ganetsky 
and  Stroukoff  entered.  Their  conference  with  Osman 
lasted  only  a  few  minutes.  Osman  agreed  at  once  to  an 
unconditional  surrender  —  he  had  no  alternative.  His 
whole  defence  had  come  down  by  the  run.  At  Opanetz 
the  Roumanians  had  captured  over  2,000  prisoners  after 
a  trivial  resistance.  In  the  redoubts  west  of  Krishin 
Kataley's  soldiers,  after  a  short  fight,  had  received  the 
surrender  of  a  Pasha,  120  officers  and  nearly  4,000  men. 
There  remained  the  troops  which  had  made  the  sortie 
of  the  morning,  and  them  Osman  himself  verbally  sur- 
rendered. The  army  of  Plevna,  which  on  December  loth 
laid  down  its  arms  after  a  gallant  and  obstinate  defence, 
consisted  of  10  Pashas,  130  field-officers,  2,000  company- 
officers,  40,000  infantrymen  and  gunners,  and  1,200 
cavalrymen.  The  Russians  became  possessed  by  the 
capitulation  of  TJ  guns  and  immense  quantities  of  am- 
munition. In  the  sortie  of  the  morning  of  December 
1 0th  the  Turkish  loss  was  6,000  men  in  round  numbers. 
The  Russians  must  have  lost  before  Plevna  from  first  to 
last  well  on  to  50,000  men  if  the  Roumanian  losses  be 
included.  Of  this  number  about  40,000  were  killed 
or  wounded,  the  remaining  10,000  died  of  sickness.  In 
the  battle  of  this  morning,  I  afterwards  learned,  the  Rus- 
sians lost  1,732  men  killed  and  wounded  among  whom 
were  one  general  and  10  field-officers. 


The  Fall  of  Plevna  275 

The  conference  with  Osman  had  occurred  about  2  p.m. 
He  entered  a  carriage  and  drove  away  towards  Plevna. 
We  all  returned  over  the  bridge  to  where  the  Grenadier 
Corps  still  remained  in  position  on  the  battle-field.  The 
Grand  Duke  Nicholas,  of  whom  it  used  to  be  said  that  he 
had  a  great  liking  for  appearing  on  the  battle-field  after 
the  fighting  was  over,  now  illustrated  the  aptness  of  that 
disparaging  remark.  He  made  his  appearance  with  his 
staff  fully  two  hours  after  the  last  shot  had  been  fired. 
As  he  rode  along  the  front  he  was  received  with  vocifer- 
ous cheers,  for  he  was  the  brother  of  the  Czar.  Halting 
in  front  of  the  centre  he  spoke  some  words  to  the  Grena- 
diers which  were  received  with  the  wildest  acclamation. 
I  was  not  certain  whether  MacGahan  spoke  seriously  or 
in  irony  when  he  remarked  that  the  Grand  Duke  had  one 
of  the  attributes  of  a  great  commander — "the  soldierly 
quality  of  knowing  how  to  speak  to  soldiers." 

The  Grand  Duke  after  the  review  expressed  his  inten- 
tion of  going  into  Plevna  and  paying  his  respects  to  Os- 
man Pasha.  We  all  followed  him  across  the  bridge.  An 
hour  had  wrought  a  remarkable  change  among  the  Turk- 
ish soldiers.  When  we  had  left  them  every  man  had  his 
arms  in  his  hand.  The  order  to  lay  down  arms  had  been 
obeyed  to  the  letter.  Each  man  had  laid  down  his  rifle 
where  he  stood,  and  we  rode  over  the  Peabody-Martinis 
with  which  the  road  was  littered.  A  little  further  down 
we  found  ourselves  in  the  midst  of  a  confused  huddle  of 
bullock-carts  and  arabas  composing  the  train  which  was  to 
have  followed  the  army  if  the  sortie  had  been  successful. 
Among  them  was  a  number  of  vehicles  apparently  belong- 
ing to  Turkish  families,  for  they  were  full  of  women  and 


276  Czar  and  Stdtan 

children  sitting  about  on  household  effects.  This  supple- 
mentary exodus,  although  it  failed,  seemed  to  me  a  strong 
argument  in  favour  of  the  hypothesis  that  Osman's  effort 
was  no  mere  bravado  for  the  sake  of  a  punctilio  of  military 
honour  and  in  order  to  impart  eclat  to  his  capitulation,  but 
that  it  was  undertaken  in  the  full  hope  that  it  would  be 
successful.  It  was  reasonable  to  suppose  that  he  knew  of 
Gourko's  departure  towards  the  Balkans  with  the  Guard 
which  had  been  holding  the  section  of  investment  west  of 
the  Vid,  and  he  may  not  have  known  that  the  Grenadiers 
had  taken  up  the  positions  which  Gourko  and  the  Guard 
had  vacated.  As  for  the  aspersion  that  Osman  had  fallen 
short  of  holding  Plevna  to  the  last  extremity,  seeing  that 
his  supplies  were  not  utterly  exhausted  at  the  time  of  his 
surrender,  it  may  be  rejoined  that  if  he  had  succeeded  in 
breaking  out  as  he  obviously  had  intended,  his  troops 
marching  through  an  exhausted  region  on  the  way  to 
Widdin,  for  which  fortress  he  certainly  would  have 
headed,  would  have  needed  a  certain  amount  of  provision- 
ment  during  the  march  which  could  be  furnished  only 
from  the  supplies  still  remaining  in  Plevna. 

It  seemed  that  Osman  had  heard  that  the  Grand  Duke 
Nicholas  had  the  purpose  to  visit  him,  and  to  forestall  the 
latter  in  courtesy  had  turned  back  to  meet  the  Russian 
Commander-in-Chief.  There  was  a  halt,  and  then  shouts 
of  "  Osman  !  Osman  !  "  It  was  an  interesting  moment 
when  Osman  drove  up  surrounded  by  a  Cossack  escort  — 
in  the  nature,  I  suppose,  of  a  guard  of  honour  —  and  fol- 
lowed on  little  bits  of  ponies  by  a  score  or  so  of  young 
officers  who,  we  learned,  constituted  his  staff.  Nicholas 
rode  up  to  the  halted  carriage  and  for  a  full  minute  the 


The  Fall  of  Plevna  277 

two  men,  Russ  and  Turk,  gazed  silently  into  each  other's 
face.  Then  they  gripped  hands  heartily,  and  the  Russian 
Commander  said :  — 

"  General,  I  honour  you  for  your  noble  defence  of 
Plevna.  It  has  been  among  the  most  splendid  examples 
of  skill  and  heroism  in  modern  history  !  "  Osman's  face 
moved  slightly  —  a  twitch  of  pain  crossed  it  as  in  spite  of 
his  wound  he  stood  up  and  saluted,  uttering  a  few  broken 
words  in  a  low  tone.  The  Russian  officers  saluted  with 
great  demonstrations  of  respect,  and  there  were  shouts  of 
"  Bravo !  "  Prince  Charles  of  Roumania  at  the  moment 
rode  up,  paid  Osman  some  warm  compliments  and  shook 
hands.  Courteous  to  the  last,  notwithstanding  the  pain 
he  was  plainly  suffering,  Osman  rose  and  bowed  his 
acknowledgments  of  Prince  Charles'  compliments.  But 
now  his  face  was  hard  and  set  and  his  bow  was  made  in 
grim  and  stern  silence.  For  Prince  Charles  of  Roumania 
was  a  vassal  of  the  Porte,  and  Osman  clearly  regarded 
him  as  having  broken  faith  with  his  Suzerain. 

The  officers  on  the  staff  of  the  Grand  Duke  Nicholas 
professed  themselves  struck  with  the  power,  energy  and 
determination  disclosed  in  the  features  of  Osman.  "  It  is 
a  grand  face ;  it  more  than  fulfils  my  ideal  of  the  man !  " 
was  the  comment  of  Colonel  Gaillard,  the  French  military 
attache.  Skobeleff  was  not  less  enthusiastic.  "  It  is  the 
face,"  he  exclaimed,  "  of  a  great  soldier ! "  They  may 
have  been  right.  For  my  part,  in  Osman's  lowering  brow 
and  heavy  jowl  I  could  discern  no  other  expression  than 
that  of  stolid  dogged  resolution.  To  me  there  was  no  evi- 
dence of  high  intellect  in  the  coarse  sullen  features.  It  is 
true  that  there  was  a  certain  pathos  in  the  dark  liquid  eye, 


278  Czar  and  Sultan 

but  as  a  whole  I  saw  nothing  distinctive  in  Osman's  as- 
pect. He  was  simply  a  Turk  of  the  old  unregenerate 
stamp  —  brave,  merciless,  and  brutal,  the  type  familiar  to 
any  one  who  knows  the  Turkish  race.  He  was  a  large- 
framed,  thick-set  man,  apparently  of  middle  age  —  there 
was  no  streak  of  grey  in  the  short  thick  black  beard  which 
covered  the  lower  part  of  his  face  and  but  partly  hid  the 
thick  sensual  lips.  No  doubt  he  was  a  fine  soldier.  But 
it  was  quite  a  mistake  that,  as  I  heard  one  critic  remark, 
he  did  not  command  a  regular  army  —  "  technically  speak- 
ing," to  quote  the  critic's  words  —  "  not  an  army  at  all,  but 
a  mob  of  armed  men,  with  scarce  any  organisation,  with 
no  discipline  save  the  natural  and  passive  obedience  of  the 
Turkish  peasant,  and  only  such  military  education  and 
experience  as  were  gained  around  Plevna  in  the  trenches 
and  on  the  battle-field."  Osman's  troops  consisted  al- 
most entirely  of  "  Nizams  "  —  of  regular  troops,  and  they 
were  veterans  with  whom  on  the  Timok  in  1876  Osman 
had  fought  and  won  several  battles  against  the  Servians 
officered  by  Russian  volunteers.  No  man  ever  accused 
Osman  of  being  a  sybarite.  Throughout  the  whole  period 
of  the  investment  he  lived  in  a  common  green  tent  although 
there  was  no  lack  of  good  houses  in  the  town  of  Plevna. 
His  tent  had  now  been  struck  and  his  last  night  in  Plevna 
was  the  first  he  spent  under  a  roof. 

After  the  short  interview  between  Osman  and  the  Grand 
Duke  the  latter  rode  on  into  Plevna.  In  the  sullen  twi- 
light the  town  presented  an  aspect  of  utter  squalor.  It 
had  suffered  scarcely  at  all  from  the  Russian  shell-fire. 
But  its  narrow  crooked  streets  knee-deep  in  foul  mud 
through    which   thousands  of    stragglers    wandered    aim- 


The  Fall  of  Plevna  279 

lessly  ;  the  gaunt  cowed  Bulgarian  inhabitants  who  hung 
about  their  doorsteps  and  saluted  timidly  as  the  staff 
passed  by,  with  a  furtive  side-glance  lest  they  should  be 
giving  offence  to  the  Turks  ;  the  houses  in  which  were 
seen  neither  lights  nor  fires  but  were  cold,  comfortless  and 
deserted  —  all  combined  to  make  up  a  scene  which  in  the 
gathering  darkness  of  a  bleak  December  evening  was 
dreary  and  depressing  in  the  extreme.  On  the  outskirts 
of  the  town  we  —  that  is  to  say  Skobeleff's  party,  while 
on  the  way  to  Ustendol  met  Tefik  Bey,  Osman's  chief  of 
staff,  who  had  lost  sight  of  his  chief  and  was  wandering 
about  in  the  mud  in  a  pathetically  helpless  way.  Skobeleff 
promptly  asked  him  to  be  his  guest  for  the  night  and 
Tefik  after  some  hesitation  consented.  Skobeleff  I  knew 
had  already  another  guest  in  Colonel  Gaillard ;  and  I  knew 
also  that  the  accommodation  in  his  quarters  was  extremely 
limited.  I  said  good-night  to  MacGahan  and  rode  back 
into  Plevna  in  the  hope  of  finding  there  some  food  and 
a  sleeping  place.  But  the  quest  seemed  in  vain.  The 
Bulgarians  of  Plevna  were  in  no  mood  to  take  in  casual 
strangers,  and  they  averred  themselves  to  be  in  a  state  of 
chronic  hunger.  I  determined  to  try  one  of  the  Turkish 
hospitals  —  but  which,  for  the  town  seemed  almost  one 
great  hospital }  On  the  steps  of  a  church  which  had  been 
pointed  out  to  me  as  the  chief  hospital  I  dimly  saw  a  man 
smoking  a  short  briar-root  pipe,  and  on  the  chance  I  ad- 
dressed him  in  English.  He  replied  in  the  same  language. 
In  ten  minutes  later  I  was  in  a  bare  but  clean  room  in 
which  was  a  good  fire,  and  I  was  sitting  on  the  floor  eating 
ravenously. 

My    kind  and    hospitable  entertainer  was   Dr.   Charles 


28o  Czar  and  Stdtaii 

Ryan,  a  native-born  Australian  whose  guest  I  have  since 
been  in  his  own  home  in  ColUns  Street,  Melbourne.  He 
had  just  taken  his  degree  and  was  about  returning  to  Aus- 
tralia to  embark  in  practice,  when  the  Russo-Turkish  war 
began.  Ryan  postponed  his  return  to  Melbourne,  and 
instead  betook  himself  to  Widdin  where  Osman  Pasha  ac- 
cepted him  as  one  of  his  army-surgeons.  He  had  marched 
with  Osman's  army  down  the  right  bank  of  the  Danube 
from  Widdin,  and  then  inland  to  Plevna.  The  diversion 
to  that  place  was  quite  an  after-thought.  Osman's  original 
intention,  said  Ryan,  had  been  to  occupy  Nicopolis.  But 
finding  that  fortress  already  in  Russian  possession,  he 
wheeled  to  his  right  and  sat  down  in  Plevna  to  await  the 
arrival  of  a  reinforcement  of  some  12,000  men  coming 
from  Sophia.  Before  its  arrival  Osman  had  but  40,000 
men,  but  they  were  the  best  troops  in  Turkey  —  the  vet- 
erans who  had  crushed  the  Servians  in  the  summer  of 
1876.  The  Sophia  reinforcements  raised  him  to  a  strength 
of  50,000  before  the  battle  of  30th  July.  Ryan  told  me 
that  he  was  the  only  English  surgeon  with  Osman  ;  all  the 
others  were  Levantines.  Osman,  he  said,  was  not  very 
solicitous  in  regard  to  his  wounded.  After  the  September 
fighting  and  while  as  yet  Plevna  had  not  been  invested,  a 
number  of  English  surgeons  had  accompanied  the  rein- 
forcements which  Shevket  Pasha  brought  into  Plevna. 
Osman  had  5,000  severely  wounded  in  the  September  fight- 
ing, whom  he  had  determined  to  relieve  himself  of  by 
sending  them  away  to  Sophia  while  the  communications 
were  yet  open,  in  the  carts  which  had  brought  in  the  sup- 
plies. I  told  Ryan  that  I  read  in  an  English  newspaper 
that  when  in  the  middle  of  October  the  English  surgeons 


The  Fall  of  Plevna  28 1 

entered  Plevna,  Osman  abruptly  refused  to  receive  them 
and  commanded  their  immediate  withdrawal.  "  That  is 
quite  untrue,"  replied  Ryan.  "  He  was  perfectly  cour- 
teous to  the  English  surgeons.  This  was  what  happened. 
Dr.  Bond  Moore,  of  the  Stafford  House  organisation, 
waited  on  Osman  to  volunteer  the  services  of  his  staff  of 
surgeons  for  work  in  the  Plevna  hospitals.  Osman  ex- 
plained to  him  most  courteously  that  he  was  very  much 
obliged  to  England  for  sending  him  doctors  and  stores,  but 
that  the  former  were  not  needed  in  Plevna,  and  he  would 
be  glad  if  Moore  would  take  his  staff  back  to  Sophia.  The 
surgeons  again  waited  on  him  to  beg  him  to  reconsider  his 
decision.  His  answer,  which  I  perfectly  remember,  having 
heard  it  myself,  was :  '  If  you  wish  to  see  any  fighting  or 
to  visit  my  positions,  you  are  welcome  to  remain  here  as 
long  as  you  like ;  but  if  you  want  to  help  my  wounded,  go 
with  them  to  Sophia  and  attend  to  them  there.'  From  the 
military  point  of  view,"  continued  Ryan,  "  I  think  Osman 
was  perfectly  justified  in  evacuating  his  wounded.  He 
had  before  him  the  virtual  certainty  of  a  close  investment, 
and  it  was  therefore  his  imperative  duty  to  reduce  as  far 
as  possible  the  number  of  mouths  to  be  fed.  Besides, 
there  was  the  great  probability  of  an  epidemic  breaking 
out  among  the  wounded,  which  might  easily  extend  beyond 
the  hospitals  and  seriously  diminish  the  number  of  his 
fighting  men.  And  I  hold  also  with  Osman  as  to  the  sani- 
tary point  of  view  in  relation  to  the  condition  of  the 
wounded  themselves.  You  must  consider  the  impossibility 
of  providing  proper  food  and  surgical  appliances,  and  the 
unhealthy  overcrowded  state  of  the  hospitals,  impregnated 
as  they  were  with  septic  germs,  making  it  extremely  prob- 


2«2 


Czar  and  Sultan 


able  that  some  serious  epidemic  would  break  out  if  the 
wounded  had  remained  in  Plevna.  I  know,"  added  Ryan, 
"  that  the  evacuation,  owing  to  the  rude  means  of  trans- 
port at  Osman's  disposal,  unquestionably  entailed  an  im- 
mense amount  of  human  suffering,  and  caused  many 
deaths  among  the  more  severe  cases.  But  great  allowance 
must  be  made  for  the  hurry  and  confusion  which  necessa- 
rily attended  this  evacuation  —  those  responsible  for  its 
execution  being  in  hourly  expectation  of  their  retreat  be- 
ing cut  off.  On  the  part  of  the  Turkish  surgeons,  believe 
me,  there  was  no  feeling  of  jealousy  in  regard  to  the 
Englishmen.  On  the  contrary,  Mr.  MacKellar's  services 
were  so  highly  appreciated  by  them  that  they  invited  him 
to  consult  on  many  of  the  most  important  cases,  and  they 
paid  him  the  highest  compliment  which  a  surgeon  could 
desire,  in  requesting  him  to  operate  on  any  cases  he  might 
select  as  presenting  special  difficulty.  As  a  matter  of  fact 
MacKellar  performed  several  capital  operations  in  presence 
of  the  principal  members  of  the  Turkish  medical  staff.  I 
must  tell  you  also  that  not  more  than  200  wounded  re- 
mained in  Plevna  after  the  general  evacuation  ;  Osman 
Pasha  had  therefore  good  reason  for  desiring  that  Moore 
and  his  comrades  should  follow  the  great  masses  of  wounded 
evacuated  on  Sophia.  But  he  so  far  acceded  to  Moore's 
representations  as  to  order  the  wounded  to  be  taken  as  far 
as  Orkanie  only,  instead  of  being  carried  on  to  Sophia  as 
Osman  had  originally  intended.  And  this,  remember,  was 
after  the  very  truculent  letter  which  Moore  thought  proper 
to  address  Osman  Pasha,  protesting  vehemently  against 
the  decision  of  the  Marshal  to  evacuate  his  wounded. 
Moore  did  not  take  into  consideration  that  Osman's  first 


The  Fall  of  Plevna  283 

duty  as  a  soldier  was  to  care  for  the  well-being  of  his  fight- 
ing men.  There  was  a  story  —  I  don't  know  who  invented 
it  but  I  am  sure  it  is  a  lie  —  that  Osman  was  heard  to  say 
'  When  one  has  to  fight,  there  is  no  time  for  physic.  Sick 
and  wounded  are  a  useless  burden ;  they  are  of  no  use  to 
the  Sultan  or  to  Turkey.  It  is  better  that  they  should  die 
quickly.  We  have  quite  enough  to  do  without  attending 
upon  them.'  If  such  expressions  had  been  attributed  to 
Suleiman  I  should  not  have  been  surprised  ;  but  Osman  is 
not  a  barbarian.  Moore's  letter  was  too  strong.  *  It  has 
been  my  painful  duty,'  he  wrote,  '  to  see  among  those  5,000 
wounded  men,  fever,  famine  and  gangrene  feasting  side 
by  side  with  smallpox  in  your  Excellency's  crippled  sol- 
diers.' He  went  on  to  say  that  Osman  Pasha's  resolution 
to  transport  to  Sophia  all  his  wounded  in  their  deplorable 
condition  '  would  result  only  in  sowing  the  Orkanie  Pass 
with  corpses.'  "  Osman,  said  Ryan,  did  not  reply  to  this 
protest  nor  did  he  thank  Moore  for  the  great  mass  of  medi- 
cal comforts,  medicines,  bandages,  &c.,  which  he  had 
brought  in  and  which,  since  Osman  would  not  permit  any 
English  surgeon  to  administer  their  distribution,  Moore 
had  given  over  to  the  principal  Turkish  surgeon.  Ryan 
said  that  Plevna  was  now  again  one  mass  of  sick  and 
wounded  and  that  it  was  a  matter  of  surprise  to  him  that 
a  pestilence  had  not  long  since  broken  out. 

The  Russians  are  not  by  nature  cruel  —  they  are  merely 
indifferent  to  human  suffering.  If  after  Plevna  they  hor- 
ribly neglected  the  prisoners  which  the  fortune  of  war 
threw  upon  their  hands,  it  may  be  said  of  them  that  they 
impartially  neglected  their  own  sick  and  wounded.  On 
the  morning  of  the   nth  December  the  Turkish  prisoners 


284  Czar  and  Sultan 

of  war  were  divided  into  two  unequal  parts,  one  of  which, 
numbering  about  30,000  men,  remained  where  the  poor  fel- 
lows stood  in  mud  and  snow  and  filth  among  their  dead 
comrades  ;  the  other,  some  10,000  strong,  fell  to  the  Rou- 
manians, who  immediately  marched  their  allotment  of  pris- 
oners to  the  Roumanian  headquarters  at  Verbitza,  where 
they  were  as  well  treated  as  circumstances  permitted,  and 
were  soon  set  on  march  across  the  Danube  and  through 
the  Principalities  on  their  way  to  their  Russian  captivity. 
For  their  prisoners  the  Russians  did  nothing  at  all ;  they 
simply  ignored  them.  The  nominal  charge  of  them  was 
given  to  General  Skobeleff,  senior.  At  this  time,  owing 
to  the  breaking  of  the  bridge  across  the  Danube  at  Nico- 
polis,  the  Russians  themselves  were  reduced  temporarily 
to  short  commons  and  the  Turks  for  three  or  four  days 
simply  got  nothing  at  all.  They  were  herded  out  in  the 
open  by  Russian  sentries,  and  there  they  stood  in  dirt  and 
mire  day  after  day  in  the  utmost  extremity  of  misery. 
They  died  in  great  numbers,  and  as  they  dropped  they 
were  trodden  down  into  the  slush  in  which  the  living  stood. 
When  the  ground  became  too  utterly  abominable,  they 
were  moved  from  it  to  another  piece  of  ground  as  muddy 
but  not  quite  so  filthy  as  that  which  had  been  abandoned. 
But  the  full  measure  of  their  misery  was  not  complete  until 
the  great  snowfall  which  began  about  the  i8th  and  by  the 
20th  was  more  than  a  foot  deep.  Before  this  time  several 
relays  of  prisoners  had  been  sent  away  towards  the  Dan- 
ube ;  but  the  great  mass  still  remained  on  the  plain  by  the 
Vid,  gaunt,  foul,  faint  with  famine,  frost-bitten  in  every 
limb,  living  corpses  rather  than  men.  I  believe  that  quite 
one-fourth  of  the  brave  army   which   Osman   Pasha  sur- 


The  Fall  of  Plevna  285 

rendered  on  December  loth  perished  in  the  mud  of  Plevna 

before  Christmas-day.  . 

The  Emperor  had  been  watching  the  fighting  of  the 
loth  from  a  redoubt  on  the  western  height  of  Radischevo, 
but  he  did  not  enter  Plevna  until  the  13th,  when  he  drove 
through  the  town  on  his  way  to  review  the  allied  army  on 
the  battle-field  beyond  the  Vid.  The  taint  from  the  Turk- 
ish prisoners  huddled  among  their  filth  not  far  from  the 
road  by  which  his  Majesty  passed  to  the  field,  must  have 
reached  his  nostrils  ;  and  a  large  body  of  them,  shepherded 
by  Russian  bayonets,  were  near  the  parade-ground  on 
which  the  troops  were  ranked.  The  muster  interested  me 
greatly.  The  morning  fog  lifted  as  I  found  myself  near 
a  regiment  of  the  Russian  Guards.  Bigger  men,  better 
dressed,  finer  in  bearing,  I  suppose  no  army  in  Europe 
could  furnish.  In  their  long  greatcoats,  every  man  step- 
ping in  exact  time,  they  passed  their  general  in  quarter- 
column  ;  and  as  they  defiled  he  gave  them  the  customary 
Russian  greeting,  which  was  answered  by  a  short,  sharp, 
fierce  shout,  quite  startling  in  the  suddenness  with  which 
it  began  and  ended.  A  brigade  of  Roumanian  regular 
infantry  came  up  into  position  headed  by  the  2nd  Chasseurs, 
a  mere  skeleton  of  a  regiment ;  two-thirds  of  it  lay  dead 
but  unburied  on  the  slopes  around  the  Gravitza  redoubts. 
The  marching  style  of  the  Roumanians  differed  consider- 
ably from  that  of  the  Russians,  who  moved  in  a  slow,  firm, 
dogged  way  that  conveyed  an  indefinite  sense  of  great 
power.  The  Roumanians  were  smaller  and  slighter  men  ; 
they  moved  with  a  quick,  brisk,  supple  action,  and  carried 
themselves  quite  jauntily.  Behind  the  Roumanian  regulars 
came  some  battalions  of  the  "  Dorobantz,"  the  Roumanian 


\86  Czm''  and  Stiltan 


Territorial  force  —  something  like  the  English  militia, 
I  fancy.  They  did  not  march  so  smartly  as  did  the  regu- 
lars, but  in  enduring  privation  and  hardship  they  were 
reported  to  have  proved  themselves  the  better  men.  The 
parade  was  being  formed  up  while  I  was  riding  with  an 
English  correspondent  who  was  with  the  Roumanians  of 
General  Carnot's  staff.  We  chanced  upon  four  or  five 
Turks  who  had  been  wounded  in  the  fighting  of  the  loth, 
and  who  although  they  had  lain  on  the  field  ever  since, 
were  still  alive.  During  four  days  and  nights,  without 
food,  without  water,  and  exposed  to  bitter  cold  in  thin 
clothing,  had  these  poor  fellows  kept  life  in  their  wounded 
bodies.  They  were  immediately  carried  on  stretchers  to 
one  of  the  Russian  field-hospitals.  A  staff  officer  made  a 
very  true  observation.  "  If  we,"  said  he,  "in  merely  cross- 
ing the  field  four  days  after  the  fighting,  stumble  on 
wounded  man  after  wounded  man,  how  many  more  unfor- 
tunates may  there  not  be  whom  nobody  has  found  !  " 

The  parade  was  very  imposing  —  a  gala-day  in  the  midst 
of  the  stern  reality  of  war.  The  troops  were  formed  in 
two  great  lines  with  intervals  between  the  regiments  ;  the 
second  line  about  fifty  paces  in  rear  of  the  first.  The 
Emperor  for  once  was  radiant  —  a  very  different  man  from 
the  bent  and  anxious  figure  I  had  seen  in  the  Gorni-Studen 
house.  He  called  up  and  embraced  Generals  Ganetsky 
and  Daniloff,  the  former  commanding  the  corps  against 
which  Osman's  onslaught  was  made,  the  latter  the  officer 
who  brought  up  the  reserves.  "  All  is  well  that  ends 
well,"  I  mused  as  I  looked  on  at  this  performance ;  had 
it  gone  the  other  way  Ganetsky  would  have  been  justly 
charged  for  having  his  front  too  weak,  and  Daniloff  would 


The  Fall  of  Plevna  287 


have  been  censured  for  being  more  than  an  hour  too  late 
in  bringing  up  the  reserves.  The  parade  was  a  mere  cere- 
mony, consisting  simply  of  an  inspection  by  the  Emperor, 
who,  accompanied  by  the  Grand  Duke  Nicholas  and  Prince 
Charles  of  Roumania  and  followed  by  a  large  and  brilliant 
staff,  passed  along  the  face  of  both  lines  in  succession. 
His  reception  was  most  enthusiastic,  each  regiment  cheer- 
ing as  soon  as  the  white  flag  with  the  bordered  cross  that 
denoted  the  Imperial  presence  came  abreast,  and  nothing 
could  be  more  impressive  than  the  enormous  volume  of 
sound  produced  by  the  excited  shouts  of  60,000  men. 

The  fall  of  Plevna  was  the  signal  for  many  departures 
from  the  army.  The  Emperor  and  his  suite  quitted 
Poradim  on  the  15th,  and  thankfully  went  home  to  St. 
Petersburg  in  the  full  flush  of  triumph.  I  had  no  op- 
portunity of  presenting  Mr.  Villiers  to  his  Majesty  in 
accordance  with  the  wish  which  he  had  deigned  to  express 
when  I  had  the  honour  of  standing  in  his  presence  while 
on  my  way  from  the  Schipka  Pass.  But  he  had  been 
so  gracious  as  to  hand  to  Colonel  Wellesley  the  order 
of  St.  Stanislaus,  to  be  given  by  him  to  Mr.  Villiers  as 
a  souvenir  of  the  information  which  his  notes  from  the 
Schipka  had  afforded  his  Majesty.  And  now  that  the 
Emperor  was  leaving  the  army  Colonel  Wellesley  himself 
was  also  to  go,  since  he  had  made  the  campaign  in  the 
headquarter  of  his  Majesty  and  not  in  that  of  the  Com- 
mander-in-Chief. Prince  Charles  of  Roumania,  who 
throughout  the  siege  had  been  the  titular  commander 
of  the  army  before  Plevna,  also  departed  for  Bucharest 
and  his  gallant  Roumanians  were  now  free  to  recross  the 
Danube.      Osman   Pasha   had  been  the  guest  on   parole 


288  Czar  and  Stiltan 

of  the  Grand  Duke  at  the  Bogot  headquarters  since  the 
surrender,  but  he  too  now  was  sent  away  to  Russia  as 
a  prisoner  of  war,  accompanied  by  a  Russian  officer  and 
a  sergeant.  General  Todleben  told  me  that  while  Osman 
was  at  Bogot  he  had  paid  the  Russian  chief  a  visit,  when 
they  had  a  long  conversation  on  the  events  of  the  siege. 

"  I  put  the  question  direct  to  Osman,"  said  Todleben, 
"  why  he  did  not  retreat  to  Radomirtza  in  October,  when 
he  knew  that  the  guard  was  concentrating  on  his  line 
of  communication  and  obviously  threatening  to  close  him 
in }  Osman's  answer  was  that,  for  two  reasons,  he  was 
resolved  against  retreating :  for  one  thing  because  he  felt 
sure,  and  that  up  to  the  very  end,  that  we  would  renew 
our  assaults,  and  that  he  was  confident  in  his  ability  to 
defeat  them  with  heavy  loss  to  us ;  and  for  another,  that 
up  to  the  middle  of  October  he  was  receiving  relays  of 
reinforcements  and  supplies,  and  in  those  circumstances 
he  could  not  think  of  quitting  his  hold  on  Plevna." 

Todleben  added  that  in  his  opinion  there  was  another 
reason  which  Osman  did  not  care  to  mention,  but  which 
was  probably  more  binding  than  were  those  reasons  which 
he  actually  stated  —  that  reason  being  that  the  Seraskie- 
rate  in  Constantinople  had  sent  Osman  positive  orders 
not  to  withdraw  from  Plevna  on  any  account. 

In  the  early  days  after  the  capitulation  Plevna  was  one 
great  charnel-house,  the  horrors  of  which  were  sickening. 
The  mosques  and  churches  were  full  of  dead  and  dying, 
and  the  houses  in  the  main  street  were  mostly  occupied 
in  the  same  manner.  Corpses  lay  about  on  the  pavements 
and  in  the  gutters,  the  passers-by  stepping  over  them 
unconcernedly.      Ryan  was    the    only    surgeon  who    was 


The  Fall  of  Plevna  289 

doing  his  duty ;  his  Levantine  comrades  of  the  Turkish 
medical  service  seemed  to  regard  themselves  as  having 
no  longer  any  responsibility.  They  stood  in  their  door- 
ways, smoking  cigarettes,  dressed  quite  smartly  and  wear- 
ing the  badge  of  the  Red  Crescent,  with  a  healthy  aspect 
quite  unlike  what  one  might  have  expected  that  hard- 
working devoted  carers  for  their  patients  would  have 
presented  in  a  fever-stricken  long-besieged  place.  There 
were  now  simply  no  hospital  attendants  on  duty  in  Plevna. 
Those  fellows  had  anticipated  that  Osman's  attempt  to 
break  out  would  prove  successful,  and  they  had  abandoned 
their  posts  to  follow  the  fortune  of  the  sortie.  Many  of 
them,  no  doubt,  had  been  killed  or  wounded ;  it  was 
certain  that  very  few  of  them  came  back  to  their  duty 
of  attending  on  the  sick  and  wounded.  Day  after  day 
passed  during  which  the  sufferers  lay  entirely  neglected. 
They  died  in  hundreds ;  and  before  the  end  of  the  third 
day  after  the  capitulation  there  were  probably  as  many 
dead  as  living  in  the  noisome,  gloomy  rooms  which  indeed 
protected  the  patients  from  cold  and  wet,  but  where  they 
lay  in  a  tainted  atmosphere  of  putridity  and  death. 

General  Skobeleff  the  younger  had  been  appointed 
governor  of  Plevna ;  but  he  was  too  much  engrossed  in 
military  affairs  to  give  much  attention  to  the  sick  and 
wounded,  at  all  events  for  the  moment.  He  concerned 
himself  in  the  first  instance  with  establishing  order.  The 
Roumanian  troops  had  broken  loose  from  restraint  and 
were  plundering  right  and  left.  Skobeleff  summoned  the 
Roumanian  officers  and  told  them  that  their  men  were 
sacking  the  town.  Their  reply  was  that  they  understood 
the  conquerors  had  the  right  to  make  free  with  the  prop- 


290  Czar  and  Sultan 

erty  of  the  vanquished.  Skobeleff  met  that  sort  of  argu- 
ment right  in  the  face.  "  In  the  first  place,"  said  he, 
"we  are  not  at  war  with  the  peaceable  inhabitants  of 
Plevna  and  consequently  we  cannot  consider  them  as 
having  been  conquered  by  us ;  and  secondly,  you  will 
have  the  goodness  to  inform  your  men  that  I  shall  have 
conquerors  of  that  sort  shot.  Every  man  caught  maraud- 
ing shall  be  shot  like  a  dog ;  please  understand  that. 
And  there  is  another  thing.  Your  men  are  insulting 
women.  This  is  disgraceful.  Let  me  tell  you  that  every 
complaint  of  this  nature  shall  be  promptly  investigated, 
and  that  every  case  of  outrage  will  be  punished  with  the 
utmost  rigour." 

On  the  evening  of  the  third  day  after  the  capitulation 
Millett  arrived  from  the  Balkans.  He  had  become  im- 
patient of  the  pause  in  events  there,  and  learning  that 
it  would  continue  for  some  little  time,  he  had  hurried 
down  to  Plevna  in  case  MacGahan  should  not  have  been 
on  the  spot  to  describe  the  scenes  at  and  after  the  sur- 
render. Millett  was  a  very  tender-hearted  man ;  he  was 
also  a  man  of  strenuous  energy.  The  horrors  of  Plevna 
and  the  neglect  of  any  measures  to  relieve  the  great 
mass  of  human  suffering,  shocked  and  angered  him.  He 
went  straight  to  young  Skobeleff  and  protested  that  the 
state  of  Plevna  was  a  disgrace  to  civilisation.  Skobeleff 
gave  him  full  powers  to  amend  the  situation,  and  Millett 
went  to  work  with  a  will.  Ryan  rallied  to  his  standard; 
I  needed  no  pressure  to  join  the  service  ;  some  Russian 
surgeons  volunteered  their  assistance  ;  Skobeleff  put  forty 
soldiers  at  Millett's  disposition  ;  and  with  drawn  revolver 
and  whip  in    hand    he   forcibly  requisitioned   three    Bui- 


The  Fall  of  Plevna  291 

garian  ox-carts  for  the  removal  of  the  dead.  Ryan  led 
the  way  to  one  of  the  so-called  hospitals.  The  stench 
of  undressed  wounds  met  us  as  we  entered  the  courtyard 
across  which  we  had  to  pick  our  way  among  the  corpses. 
Huddled  in  one  great  room  were  about  ninety  Turkish 
soldiers,  of  whom  nearly  one-half  were  already  dead  and 
many  others  in  their  last  extremity.  It  was  difficult  to 
discriminate  between  dead  and  living  in  the  clotted  noi- 
some mass  of  putrefying  mortality.  Groans  came  from 
rigid  lips,  and  beseeching  wails  for  water;  some  of  the 
strongest  begged  for  a  morsel  of  bread,  raising  them- 
selves painfully  and  fixing  from  their  sunken  eyes  a 
glassy  stare  on  those  who  had  come  to  relieve  them 
from  their  contact  with  their  dead  comrades.  There 
was  a  smaller  inner  room  where  the  atmosphere  was 
beyond  description  abominable,  reeking  from  the  huddled 
forms  of  miserable  wretches  rotting  as  they  lay  in  the 
semi-darkness.  Living  and  dead  lay  commingled  in  a 
mass.  Most  of  the  forms  were  motionless,  and  we  knew 
what  that  indicated.  From  other  forms  came  scarcely 
audible  groans  as  bony  hands  were  raised  to  lips  in  token 
of  craving  for  food.  From  yet  others  who  were  beyond 
hungering  for  food,  one  heard  faint  whispers  of  "  Water  ! 
Water!"  All  that  could  be  done  for  the  moment  was 
to  drag  the  dead  out  from  among  the  still  living,  to  let 
in  light  and  air,  and  to  give  water  and  food  in  the  hope 
of  saving  some  of  those  in  whom  there  yet  remained  life. 
As  the  bread  and  water  were  being  distributed,  it  was 
horrible  to  see  the  feeble  wretches  struggling  faintly 
with  each  other  in  their  extremity  of  greed.  Some  slowly 
munched  the  bread  with  stiffening  jaws  until  a  greenish 


292  Czar  a)id  Sultan 

pallor  came  over  the  hollow  face  and  the  dim  eyes  became 
fixed  in  death.  Then  the  living  clutched  at  the  crust 
in  the  dead  man's  hand  and  fought  for  it  with  the  rem- 
nants of  their  waning  strength,  cursing  each  other  and 
wrangling  over  the  scrap  of  spoil  perhaps  to  sink  dead 
in  the  actual  process  of  mastication. 

One  instance  may  serve  as  a  type  of  all.  As  I  tell 
you  of  the  abominations,  the  nausea  which  hung  in  my 
throat  and  nostrils  during  those  horrible  days  seems  to 
come  back  to  me  and  sicken  me.  I  think  the  mosques 
were  the  worst  —  their  pavements  covered  with  the  crouch- 
ing ghost-like  forms  crawling  about  among  the  stark 
dead,  whose  faces  came  out  in  ghastly  relief  with  a 
fixed  expression  of  awful  agony.  After  a  day  or  two 
the  soldiers  begged  to  be  relieved  from  a  work  which 
they  loathed,  and  Millett  compelled  some  of  the  loafing 
Bulgarians  to  serve  in  their  stead.  They  performed 
the  hated  task  with  an  ostentatious  brutality  horrible  to 
witness.  They  dragged  the  bodies  out  by  the  legs,  the 
heads  bumping  from  step  to  step  with  sickening  thuds, 
then  hauled  the  corpses  out  into  the  court  through  the 
filthy  mud,  where  they  slung  them  into  the  carts  with 
heads  or  limbs  hanging  over  the  side,  and  so  piled  up 
the  load  with  a  score  of  half-naked  bodies.  It  turned 
one's  blood  to  hear  the  conversation  of  the  men  at  this 
work.  A  form  was  brought  out  in  which  there  seemed 
still  a  flicker  of  life.  "  Oh,  devil  take  him  !  "  was  the 
comment  —  "He  is  at  his  last  kick  anyhow  —  in  with 
him !  "  When  the  carts  had  their  complement  they  were 
driven  through  the  streets  to  the  trenches  outside  the 
towns.     The  horrible  load  jolted  and  quivered  as  it  rolled 


The  Fall  of  Plevna  293 

along ;  now  and  again  a  body  would  fall  out  into  the 
mud  and  be  heaved  in  again.  This  procession  of  corpses 
passed  through  the  streets  several  times  a  day,  wending 
its  way  through  the  crowds  of  natives,  soldiers,  sick  and 
wounded,  and  it  became  such  a  thing  of  course  that  no 
man  cared  to  turn  his  head  to  glance  at  it.  In  the  first 
three  days  a  thousand  dead  were  thus  carted  away,  yet 
the  mortality  in  the  hospitals  gave  no  sign  of  diminution. 
Russian  surgeons  were  now  working  in  them  and  some 
of  the  Turkish  surgeons  languidly  helped,  but  the  patients 
were  legion  and  the  doctors  were  few.  Devoted  service 
was  being  given  by  some  Russian  Sisters  of  Charity 
who  moved  about  quietly  busy  from  dawn  till  dark  bring- 
ing comfort  to  hundreds,  whose  wounds  they  dressed 
and  whose  pains  they  alleviated  by  their  tender  and 
humane  ministrations. 

Millett  had  not  seen  the  battle-field  of  the  loth,  and 
on  the  1 6th  I  rode  out  with  him  to  point  out  to  him 
its  features.  Before  we  reached  the  Vid  a  heavy  snow- 
storm set  in  which  of  course  restricted  the  view.  As 
we  crossed  the  river  there  came  from  the  battle-field  a 
foul  and  sickening  stench.  "  Your  battle-field  still  smells 
pretty  powerfully  !  "  exclaimed  Millett,  with  handkerchief 
at  nose  — "  are  they  never  going  to  bury  the  dead  of 
it.-*"  I  knew  the  stench  —  there  was  a  whiff  in  it  of 
the  battle-field,  it  was  true ;  but  it  had  another  and  fouler 
origin.  "  The  battle-field,"  said  I,  "  is  on  our  right  front ; 
it  is  not  from  it  whence  this  sickening  effluvium  comes. 
Look  due  to  your  right  through  the  snowflakes,  and 
tell  me  what  you  see !  "  Millett  drew  rein  and  peered 
through   the   snow.     "Why!"    he    exclaimed,    "it    is    a 


294  Czar  and  Snlfan 

mass  of  men  yonder,  but  they  are  not  on  parade  nor  are 
they  armed.  They  are  cowering  in  a  sort  of  heap.  My 
God!"  he  cried,  "it  is  Osman's  army — ^  now  I  can  dis- 
cern the  uniforms.  And  it  is  from  it  comes  that  abomi- 
nable stench,  which  smells  like  nothing  I  ever  smelt  in 
my  life  before !  "  Yes,  it  was  the  gallant  army  of  Plevna, 
filthy  and  long  unwashed,  huddled  together  in  the  snow- 
slush,  fireless,  all  but  foodless,  herded  rigorously  in  dis- 
regard of  hygienic  necessities  —  it  was  from  this  mass 
of  living  uncleanness  that  emanated  the  stench  which  was 
new  to  Millett. 

We  rode  to  windward  of  the  human  herd,  as  near 
as  the  sentries  would  permit.  The  miserables  were  sepa- 
rated, it  seemed,  in  great  companies  of  several  hundreds. 
It  was  a  piteous  and  a  solemn  sight.  It  seemed  impossible 
that  human  beings  could  remain  alive  under  such  con- 
ditions. Their  manhood  was  gradually  departing  from 
them ;  it  was  evident  that  their  privations  were  making 
them  bestial.  They  were  wrangling,  fighting,  and  snarl- 
ing among  themselves  like  so  many  wolves,  for  the  scanty 
loaves  which  had  been  tossed  in  among  them  as  food  is 
thrown  to  the  lower  animals.  They  huddled  together  and 
wrapped  tightly  round  their  lean  bodies  their  thin  ragged 
clothing  on  which  the  snow  was  settling,  and  as  they  shook 
it  off,  trod  it  into  the  foul  mire  with  the  constant  motion  of 
their  numbed  feet.  It  was  a  ghastly  spectacle,  a  flagrant 
disgrace  to  the  army  of  a  nation  claiming  to  be  civilised, 
a  horror  that  I  shall  never  cease  to  remember  without  a 
shudder.  Convoys  of  these  prisoners  of  war  were  on  the 
march  to  Russia  across  the  snow-covered  plains  of  Wal- 
lachia  and  Moldavia.     I  have  often  wondered  what  per- 


The  Fall  of  Plevna  295 

centage  died  on  the  journey.  Villiers  met  one  body  of  those 
brave  patient  unfortunates  near  the  village  of  Putinein  on 
the  road  from  Bucharest  to  Alexandria,  and  it  was  an 
awful  pen-picture  which  he  drew.  Listen !  I  read  from 
the  cutting  I  made  from  his  newspaper :  — 

"  Before  us  was  one  vast  plain  of  snow,  broken  only  by 
the  black  telegraph-poles  and  the  heavy  wing-flapping  of 
the  carrion  crows.  Soon  these  foul  birds  increased  in 
numbers,  making  almost  black  the  leaden  sky.  Then  afar 
off,  breaking  the  horizon,  a  long  dark  line  came  slowly 
onward,  moving  in  caterpillar  fashion  towards  us  along 
the  road.  It  was  a  column  of  men  on  the  march  —  not 
Russian  soldiers  or  Roumanian,  else  we  now  should  have 
heard  some  cheerful  song  borne  over  the  snow.  It  must 
be  a  convoy  of  Turkish  prisoners ;  for  in  front  waver  the 
bayonets  of  the  Roumanian  military  guards  as  they  plod 
slowly  forward  under  the  weight  of  their  miscellaneous 
kit.  Following  them  are  a  few  Turkish  officers,  some  on 
ponies,  some  on  foot.  Behind  them  tramp  through  the 
snow  the  men  who  so  long  kept  at  bay  the  flower  of  the 
Russian  army  around  Plevna.  How  spiritless  and  broken 
they  look  as  they  trudge  drearily  along  the  road  to  their 
captivity !  Half-starved,  almost  dead  with  fatigue  and  the 
bitter  cold,  many  with  fever  burning  in  their  eyes,  — mere 
stalking  bones  and  foul  rags,  —  come  the  brave  troops 
who  made  the  fame  of  Osman  Pasha.  We  get  well  to 
windward  of  those  poor  creatures,  for  typhus  and  small- 
pox linger  round  the  sorry  columns  on  the  frosty  air.  Sev- 
eral are  even  now  falling  out  of  the  ranks  to  lie  down  and 
die.  One  poor  fellow  has  thrown  himself  on  the  snow  by 
the  roadside ;  he  can  go  no  further.     A  comrade,  loth  to 


296  Czar  and  Sultan 

leave  him,  follows  and  tries  to  persuade  him  to  struggle 
once  more  to  join  the  lines.  There  is  no  response.  He 
has  swooned  or  is  dead.  A  soldier  of  the  rear-guard  comes 
up  and  roughly  pushes  the  living  man  back  into  the  ranks. 
Then  he  kicks  with  his  foot  the  bundle  of  rags  lying  on 
the  face  of  the  snow.  There  is  no  sign.  With  the  butt- 
end  of  his  gun  he  turns  the  head  over  from  out  of  the 
snow.  The  eyes  glare  at  him  with  a  cold  inxed  stare.  The 
Turk  is  dead.  The  .soldier  brutally  pushes  the  body  deeper 
into  the  snow,  shoulders  his  rifle,  and  rejoins  his  guard. 

"  Thousands  of  birds  of  prey  whirl  round  and  settle  in 
front  and  in  rear,  always  following  the  grim  and  squalid 
procession  like  sharks  round  a  doomed  ship.  A  few  yards 
further  on  lies,  half  covered  with  snow,  the  nude  body  of 
another  Turk,  stripped  to  the  skin  by  his  companions  for 
the  sake  of  the  little  warmth  afforded  by  the  rags  he  had 
worn.  A  carrion  crow  has  just  settled  on  the  dead  man's 
clenched  hand,  and  the  dogs  are  slinking  around  their 
victim.  A  few  paces  further  brings  us  to  another  miser- 
able, lying  as  he  had  died  with  upturned  face,  staring  up 
to  heaven  through  the  fast-falling  snow.  We  are  now  near 
a  village,  and  we  have  just  been  the  witnesses  of  a  skirmish 
between  the  swine  and  the  dogs  belonging  to  it,  to  decide 
which  shall  be  first  to  reach  the  scarcely-cold  carcase.  It 
is  the  village  of  Putinein,  almost  lost  in  the  snow  and  ice. 
How  different  the  place  looks  from  what  it  was  when  I 
first  passed  it  in  the  early  summer,  when  searching  for 
Dragomiroff  to  know  where  was  to  be  made  the  great 
crossing  of  the  Danube !  Then  we  were  suffering  from 
mosquitoes,  intense  heat  and  blinding  dust ;  now  we  are 
shivering  in  our  furs  with  cold." 


The  Fall  of  Plevna  297 

MacGahan  had  gone  to  Bucharest  to  be  within  touch 
of  the  telegraph  wire.  Before  he  went  he  gave  me  the 
particulars  of  the  little  dinner-party  at  which  Tefik  Bey, 
Osman's  chief  of  staff,  was  entertained  by  Skobeleff  on 
the  evening  of  the  day  of  the  surrender  of  Plevna.  "  A 
warm  fire,"  said  MacGahan,  "  burned  brightly  in  Skobe- 
leff's  mud-hut,  a  glass  of  vodka  and  some  hot  soup  soon 
thawed  out  our  benumbed  hands  and  feet,  and  we  were 
presently  enjoying  a  hot  dinner  with  the  appetites  of  men 
who  had  been  in  the  saddle  since  daylight  without  a  morsel 
to  eat.  Tefik  Bey  seemed  much  depressed.  He  spoke 
little,  and  was  at  first  almost  as  taciturn  as  he  had  been 
on  the  bridge.  He  brightened  up,  however,  as  dinner 
progressed,  drank  a  glass  of  red  wine,  a  glass  of  sherry, 
and  a  couple  of  glasses  of  champagne  when  Skobeleff 
proposed  the  health  of  Osman  Ghazi  and  drank  to  the 
brave  defenders  of  Plevna.  A  merry  smile  broke  over  his 
face  when  Skobeleff  asked  him  who  had  commanded  the 
Turks  on  the  Green  Hill;  and  I  think  it  must  have  oc- 
curred to  him  now  for  the  first  time  that  his  entertainer 
was  Skobeleff,  with  whom  he  had  exchanged  so  many 
hard  blows  on  the  Loftcha  road  and  the  Green  Hill. 
Nobody  had  mentioned  Skobeleff's  name  in  his  presence, 
nor  had  Skobeleff  told  him  who  he  was;  but  the  fact  that 
we  had  ridden  out  by  the  Loftcha  road,  together  with 
Skobeleff's  (piestion  about  the  Green  II ill,  was  quite 
enough  to  enlighten  Tefik.     So  he  said  with  a  smile : 

" '  Ah  !  then  it  was  you  who  gave  us  such  tough  work 
on  the  Green  Hill  all  this  time !  You  are  General 
Skobeleff .? ' 

"  Skobeleff  laughed,  and  simply  said  '  Yes.' 


298  Czar  and  Sultan 

"  *  That  was  a  very  good  attack  of  yours  that  evening  in 
the  fog  and  darkness.  Very  well  done.  But  you  did  not 
get  all  the  hill ! ' 

"  '  No,'  said  Skobeleff,  '  I  did  not  want  it  all' 

"  Then  they  both  laughed.  But  after  this  momentary 
flicker  of  sunshine,  Tefik  soon  elapsed  into  gloom  and 
melancholy.  Probably  it  was  partly  owing  to  the  sadness 
and  despondency  under  the  circumstances,  partly  the  re- 
action from  the  extreme  excitement  and  strain  of  nerves 
during  the  last  few  days  when  preparing  for  the  sortie, 
and  partly  from  extreme  lassitude  and  fatigue.  We  had 
hardly  finished  our  coffee  when  Skobeleff,  taking  pity  on 
him,  turned  us  all  out,  gave  up  his  bed  to  Tefik,  had 
another  hastily  made  up  for  Colonel  Gaillard,  and  then 
himself  retired  and  passed  the  night  in  a  hut  of  one  of 
his  officers." 

During  the  last  two  or  three  days  of  my  stay  in  Plevna 
I  lived  in  the  house  of  a  Bulgarian  who  was  a  man  of 
considerable  intelligence.  He  was,  or  rather  he  had  been, 
an  agent  of  the  American  Bible  Society.  He  was  one  of 
the  few  politicians  whom  I  found  in  Bulgaria.  He  had 
been  a  sort  of  village  Hampden  in  his  time,  and  had 
indeed  served  a  term  of  imprisonment  for  active  dis- 
affection but  had  regained  his  liberty  by  bribery.  He 
had  been  the  head-centre  of  the  insurrectionary  organi- 
sation in  and  around  Plevna  in  1875-6,  and  he  was  good 
enough  to  show  me  the  lists  of  memberships  and  sub- 
scriptions —  the  latter  not  very  reckless  in  their  liberality. 
Everything  had  been  beautifully  prearranged,  he  said,  but 
when  the  time  came  there  was  not  even  a  "  cabbage- 
garden  "  rising.     The  conspirators  realised  that  the  theory 


The  Fall  of  Plevna  299 


and  practice  of  insurrection  were  not  quite  synonymous, 
and  they  remained  content  with  the  former  kixury.  The 
"  head-centre  "  himself  had  thought  it  prudent  to  leave 
Plevna  and  to  sequester  himself  temporarily  in  Poradim, 
where  he  made  a  friend  of  the  local  moullah  through  the 
medium  of  presents  of  poultry. 

Knowing  how  well-to-do  had  been  the  Bulgarian  popu- 
lation north  of  the  Balkans  before  the  war,  and  how  trivial 
was  the  so-called  oppression  of  the  Turks  who  dwelt 
among  them,  I  asked  my  host  what  were  the  incentives 
to  insurrection  on  the  part  of  the  former. 

"  Well,"  said  he,  "  to  tell  you  the  real  truth,  the  insur- 
rections were  quietly  got  up  by  our  friends  who  came  in 
here  the  other  day.  Their  emissaries  swarmed  all  over 
the  regions  on  this  side  the  Balkans,  telling  us  that  they 
were  ashamed  to  find  their  Bulgarian  brethren  in  the  con- 
dition of  serfs,  and  pointing  out  to  us  how  the  Servians 
had  thrown  off  the  Turkish  yoke.  The  time,  they  said, 
was  favourable  to  our  emancipation.  A  good  many  Bul- 
garians had  indeed  already  worked  out  their  own  emanci- 
pation by  emigrating ;  and  wherever  they  found  themselves, 
in  Bucharest,  in  Galatz,  up  among  the  hills  at  Cronstadt 
or  down  on  the  fiat  in  Crajova  or  Turn  Severin,  there  they 
sedulously  plotted  against  the  Turkish  rule  over  the  Bul- 
garia from  which  they  were  exiles.  Our  people  who  stayed 
at  home  began  really  to  believe  that  the  Turks  were  op- 
pressing them.  They  received  every  encouragement  in  a 
furtive  way  from  Russian  sources  in  Constantinople,  and 
they  listened  to  the  voices  of  their  exiled  countrymen 
goading  them  on  to  insurrection.  The  outbreak  was  no 
doubt  a  miscarriage.     We  were  not  ready  and  most  of  us 


300  Czar  and  Stilt  an 

were  only  half-hearted.  But  it  was  nonsense  to  say,  as 
some  said,  that  it  was  merely  a  petty  and  local  affair.  I 
could  show  you  abundant  evidence  in  writing  of  the  wide- 
spread ramifications  of  the  organisations  for  revolt.  It 
was  the  Russian  emissaries  who  stirred  up  the  actual  out- 
break, not  because  they  expected  it  to  succeed,  —  they 
knew  better  than  that,  and  indeed  would  have  been  a 
good  deal  surprised  and  disgusted  if  it  had,  —  but  because 
its  failure  and  the  reprisals  which  were  certain  to  follow 
would  afford  them  the  pretext  which  Russia  wanted.  I 
saw  through  the  snare  in  time,  and  warned  most  of  the 
circles  north  of  the  Balkans  that  they  would  act  wisely  in 
remaining  quiet  and  not  giving  the  Turks  a  handle  for 
suspecting  them. 

"  How  much  of  the  conspiracy  the  Turks  actually  came 
to  know  I  have  never  heard.  Where  there  are  three  Bul- 
garians there  is  sure  to  be  one  informer  —  you  see  I  have 
not  a  high  opinion  of  my  countrymen.  At  all  events,  the 
Turks  knew  something,  and  no  doubt  they  suspected  more. 
They  had  their  hands  full  enough  already,  what  with  insur- 
rection in  Montenegro  and  the  Herzegovine,  and  Servia 
getting  together  an  army — not  to  speak  of  mischief  in 
other  regions.  This  rising  was  right  in  the  hollow  of  the 
Turks'  hand,  and  you  know  how  they  stamped  it  out. 
The  *  atrocities  '  with  which  all  Europe  rang  gave  Russia 
the  opportunity  which  she  had  been  cunningly  making  for 
herself.  I  fancy  by  this  time  she  is  pretty  sorry  that  she 
ever  took  hold  of  the  job — she  did  not  expect  to  meet 
with  the  obstructions  which  have  cost  her  so  dear.  I  have 
been  shut  up  in  Plevna  for  months  and  know  little  of  what 
is  happening  outside ;  but  I  reckon  by  this  time  the  Rus- 


The  Fall  of  Plevna  301 

sian  and  the  Bulgarian  are  not  so  fond  of  each  other  as 
they  were  in  the  early  days  of  hugging  and  kissing.  The 
'  Bratoushkas  '  don't  love  each  other  as  they  once  did." 

I  had  chanced  on  a  Bulgarian  cynic  with  a  vengeance. 
He  had  liberated  his  mind  as  to  his  own  race  ;  what  were 
his  notions  in  regard  to  the  Turks  among  whom  he  had 
been  living  during  the  investment  ? 

"Well,"  said  he,  as  he  rolled  a  cigarette  —  "all  Turks 
are  more  or  less  stupid,  but  Osman  Pasha  is  the  most 
stupid  Turk  I  have  ever  known.  Here  in  Plevna  there 
have  been  throughout  the  investment  some  two  thousand 
Bulgarians.  From  the  first  we  have  constantly  pleaded 
poverty.  Now  that  it  is  all  over  I  may  tell  you  that  we 
have  food  enough  to  last  us  during  the  winter.  But  we 
have  been  rationed  by  Osman  as  if  we  had  not  a  single 
loaf  of  our  own.  Now  and  then  he  has  called  us  out  to 
work  on  the  defences,  but  never  under  fire.  Mostly  we 
have  been  lounging  about  doing  nothing.  Why  he  did  not 
turn  every  one  of  us  out  of  his  lines  has  been  a  standing 
puzzle  to  me.  It  was  only  in  the  daytime  that  we  yawned 
about.  At  night  every  man  of  us  became  a  spy  in  the 
service  of  the  Russians.  They  know  me  quite  well  up 
yonder  at  Bogot  and  Tutchenitza,  and  I  know  the  feel  of 
their  dirty  rouble  notes.  And  let  me  tell  you,  a  good  many 
of  us  were  double  spies.  If  you  were  with  the  Russians 
during  the  siege  you  must  have  noticed  that  the  Turks 
never  were  taken  by  surprise.  Osman,  however,  was  a 
shabby  paymaster."  Whereupon  this  outspoken  person 
desired  that  I  should  excuse  him,  since  in  talking  to  me 
he  was  losing  the  opportunity  for  a  little  quiet  looting. 

General   Todleben   was  the   kindest  man   I   have    ever 


^02  Czar  and  Stilt  an 

known.  One  day  he  sent  me  a  message  that  he  desired 
to  see  me.  I  immediately  rode  out  to  Tutchenitza,  where 
I  found  the  general  sitting  over  a  glass  of  tea.  "  Come 
along,  young  Carnegie !  "  he  said.  "Where  have  you  been 
all  these  days  .!* "  He  did  not  wait  for  an  answer,  but  con- 
tinued :  "  There  is  a  gentleman  in  the  next  room  whom 
I  think  perhaps  you  may  like  to  see  —  shall  I  call  him 
in } "  With  that  he  rose  and  opened  a  door  ;  and  there 
entered  —  my  good  old  father  !  This  was  indeed  a  pleas- 
ant surprise,  and  we  cordially  embraced.  The  old  gentle- 
man was  in  great  feather,  and  it  was  clear  that  the  general 
and  he  were  on  very  friendly  terms.  Todleben,  it  seemed, 
had  never  forgotten  the  transaction  of  the  grey  stallion, 
and  he  had  quietly  put  a  good  many  commissions  in  the 
way  of  the  firm  which,  said  my  father,  were  giving  a  fine 
profit  and  would  continue  to  do  so.  This  was  a  good  hear- 
ing, for  I  knew  that  the  house  had  not  earned  a  ducat 
during  the  first  six  months  of  the  war,  and  that  the  old 
gentleman  had  been  not  a  little  anxious  in  regard  to  ways 
and  means.  "  Do  you  know  what  I  am  going  to  do  now, 
youngster.''"  asked  the  general.  "  No,  Excellency,"  I  re- 
plied, "  but  I  know  that  you  are  always  doing  kind  and 
gracious  things."  "  Well,"  said  he,  "  do  you  think  it  a 
kind  and  gracious  thing  to  turn  an  elderly  gentleman  out 
of  house  and  home  .''  " 

I  glanced  at  your  good  grandfather  and  saw  that  he  was 
smiling.  "  Is  this  the  unfortunate,"  I  asked,  "  who  in  his 
old  age  is  to  be  cast  out  to  the  mercy  of  a  stony-hearted 
world,  sir.!*"  "  Yes,"  replied  Todleben,  with  a  broad  smile, 
"  that  is  the  houseless  one.  Takes  it  pretty  lightly,  don't 
he .-"     Now  let  us  talk  sense !     The  army  is  breaking  up 


The  Fall  of  Plevna  303 

from  around  this  loathsome  Plevna,  and  I  am  going  east- 
ward to  undertake  the  reduction  of  the  fortress  of  Rust- 
chuk.  Your  father  tells  me  that  I  can  find  no  comfortable 
quarters  in  the  vicinity  of  Rustchuk  on  the  Turkish  bank, 
and  he  has  offered  me  his  own  house  in  Giurgevo.  We 
have  come  to  terms,  and  we  shall  travel  eastward  together 
in  a  day  or  two.  Now  tell  me  what  you  mean  to  do,  and 
whether  I  can  be  of  any  service  to  you." 

I  told  him  that  I  purposed  rejoining  Gourko  up  in  the 
Etropol  Balkans  and  following  his  fortunes ;  but  that  be- 
fore setting  out  I  was  very  anxious  to  know  what  were  to 
be  the  general  dispositions. 

"Well,"  said  the  general,  "  I  believe  I  can  give  you  the 
information  you  desire,  only  I  beg  that  you  will  keep  it 
to  yourself.  This  time  the  hot-heads  have  won  the  day. 
I  suppose  that  I  am  an  old  fogy  now-a-days,  and  have  no 
enterprise  any  more.  The  view  I  took  was  that  the  Turks 
from  all  quarters  would  now  rally  about  Adrianople,  and 
probably  make  another  Plevna  of  that  position  which 
Blum  Pasha,  as  we  know,  has  fortified  artistically.  Sup- 
pose that  we  should  have  effected  the  passage  of  the 
Balkans,  I  argued  that  we  should  arrive  before  Adrianople 
with  a  mountain  chain  in  our  rear  and  a  line  of  communi- 
cation impossible  to  keep  open.  Therefore  my  advice  was 
that  the  army  should  go  into  winter  quarters  in  the  villages 
among  the  foot-hills  north  of  the  Balkans,  concentrating 
a  considerable  force  around  Rustchuk  and  undertaking 
the  regular  siege  of  that  fortress.  Then  in  the  spring 
when  the  troops  had  been  refitted,  the  army,  with  a  rail- 
way at  its  back,  should  march  on  Adrianople  by  way  of 
Varna.     I  believe  that  the  majority  of  the  generals  are  of 


304  Czar  and  Sultan 

my  way  of  thinking ;  but  I  now  know  that  the  two  thrust- 
ing commanders,  Gourko  and  Skobeleff,  have  influenced 
the  Grand  Duke  Nicholas  to  push  across  the  Balkans  as 
soon  as  possible,  in  spite  of  the  difficulties  of  ground,  of 
season,  of  bad  roads  and  uncertainty  of  supplies.  Well, 
be  it  so  !  I  am  a  soldier —  I  am  neither  a  diplomatist  nor 
a  politician.  I  know  that  there  is  a  secret  reason  pressing 
that  the  war  be  ended  within  the  limits  of  a  single  cam- 
paign ;  and  I  quite  realise  that  if  active  operations  were 
postponed  until  the  spring  the  Turks  would  thus  gain  time 
to  reorganise  and  strengthen  their  forces,  and  complica- 
tions might  occur  with  other  powers. 

"  Anyhow,"  continued  the  general,  "  the  resolution  has 
been  taken  and  the  dispositions  are  already  in  progress. 
I  suppose  you  know  that  reinforcements  to  Gourko  are 
already  on  the  march.  The  3rd  Guard  Division  started 
on  the  14th,  and  the  9th  Corps  yesterday.  When  these 
join  him  his  army  will  consist  of  about  65,000  infantry, 
6,000  cavalry,  and  280  guns.  Radetski's  strength  at  the 
Schipka  will  be  made  up  to  56,000  infantry,  2,000  cavalry, 
and  250  guns.  Skobeleff  and  Mirski  will  belong  to  his 
command,  and  the  Grenadier  Corps  will  be  in  reserve  in 
the  Gabrovo-Drenova  valley.  The  Cesarevich  will  stand 
fast  on  the  left  flank  with  over  70,000  men.  Altogether, 
for  the  winter  campaign  Russia  will  have  close  on  300,000 
men  in  the  field. 

"  There,  my  lad,  is  a  mass  of  figures  for  you  !  If  I  were 
you  I  should  give  up  that  note-book  and  use  your  memory. 
Believe  me,  the  use  of  a  note-book  simply  debauches  the 
memory.  But  that  is  your  affair.  You  start  the  day  after 
to-morrow,  you  say.     Well,  stay  here  and  dine  with  your 


•  •»;>>■- 


^'  J. 


7/^^  /^^//  of  Plevna  305 


father  and  myself,  and  you  will  have  all  to-morrow  to 
make  your  preparations." 

It  was  a  happy  night  for  me,  listening  to  the  wisdom 
and  reminiscences  of  the  grand  old  soldier  to  whose  kind- 
ness I  owed  so  much,  and  with  the  honest  sterling  face 
of  my  dear  old  father  opposite  to  me.  War,  which  to  so 
many  brings  misery  and  suffering,  had  to  me  brought  only 
interest,  excitement,  intercourse  with  men  of  fine  character 
and  high  position,  and  something  of  self-reliance.  I  was 
but  a  stripling  yet  I  felt  myself  almost  a  man,  and  that 
lijce  "Hal  o'  the  Wynd  "  I  could  fight  for  my  own  hand 
if  need  were. 

I  spent  my  last  day  in  foul  and  loathsome  Plevna  in 
making  a  circuit  around  the  Turkish  positions  and  the 
localities  where  had  been  the  heaviest  fighting.  I  rode 
out  over  the  successive  knolls  in  the  centre  of  the  horse- 
shoe, where  the  ground  was  pitted  all  over  by  the  craters 
of  burst  shells  but  where  there  were  comparatively  few 
unburied  corpses  ;  and  thence  up  the  valley  of  the  Gravitza 
brook  towards  the  redoubts,  the  second  of  which  was  the 
scene  of  the  repulse  of  the  Roumanians  on  October  19th. 
The  interior  of  the  first  Gravitza  redoubt,  which  was  full 
of  corpses  when  visited  by  Colonel  Wellesley  and  Villiers 
on  the  day  after  its  capture,  had  been  cleared  out,  I 
assumed  by  the  Roumanians,  and  the  bodies  had  been 
buried  in  the  long  trench  below  the  redoubt  which  you  no 
doubt  noticed  when  you  made  the  round  of  the  Plevna 
positions  the  other  day.  But  all  over  that  slope  outside 
the  redoubts  and  in  the  very  ditches  surrounding  them, 
lay  thickly-strewn  corpses  slowly  decomposing.  I  went 
down  into  the  village  and  saw  there  the  head-man  with 


3o6  Czar  and  Sulian 

whom  I  had  a  short  'conversation  during  the  September 
bombardment.  I  suggested  to  him  that  now  that  there 
was  to  be  no  more  fighting  in  his  vicinity,  he  might  con- 
sider it  an  act  of  common  decency  to  clear  the  village 
fields  of  the  dead  which  still  disfigured  their  surface.  The 
head-man  said  that  as  soon  as  the  Russians  had  gone 
away  and  the  valley  and  its  slopes  had  been  restored  to 
their  wonted  quietude,  there  would  be  a  wholesale  inter- 
ment ;  but  that  his  people  were  expecting  —  they  were 
to  expect  in  vain  —  that  the  conquering  Russians  would 
make  some  payment  to  the  burial  parties. 

Riding  through  the  battery  whence  the  siege-guns 
hurled  their  huge  projectiles  against  the  Gravitza,  I  went 
aside  a  little  way  to  look  closely  at  the  observatory  from 
the  balcony  of  which  the  Emperor  watched  the  fighting 
in  those  dread  days  of  September.  It  was  slowly  sinking 
into  ruin,  and  where  the  marquee  in  its  rear  was  in  which 
the  Imperial  suite  quaffed  champagne  while  their  master 
winced  and  cowered  as  the  Turkish  fire  smote  his  gallant 
men,  there  were  now  only  crushed  cans  and  broken 
bottles.  The  straw-stack  was  still  to  the  fore  in  the  heart 
of  which  Jackson  had  his  lair  during  the  nights  of  the 
September  fighting,  and  outside  of  which  he  was  wont  to 
sit  all  day  and  watch  the  scene  when  he  was  not  despatch- 
ing couriers.  I  scarcely  recognised  again  the  Radischevo 
ridge,  on  the  leafy  crest  of  which  Schahof skoy,  Villiers,  and 
myself  sat  on  July  30th  as  we  gazed  down  on  the  carnage 
on  the  maize  slopes  leading  up  to  the  Turkish  first 
redoubt.  Yonder  was  the  spring  around  which  huddled 
the  wounded  begging  for  the  love  of  God  for  a  mouthful 
of  the  scanty  water.     But  the  trees  had  long  been  cut 


The  Fall  of  Plevna  307 

down  on  the  Radischevo  ridge,  and  in  place  of  them  was 
the  grim  row  of  empty  Russian  redoubts  around  which  still 
hung  the  sour  unpleasant  smell  that  the  Russian  soldier 
seems  to  carry  about  with  him  as  a  possession.  To  my 
right  as  I  descended  into  the  Tutchenitza  ravine,  lowered 
the  conical  mamelon  crowned  by  Redoubt  "  No.  10,"  on 
whose  slopes  lay  thick  the  decaying  corpses  of  the  Russians 
whom  I  had  watched  the  Turks  hack  and  mangle  on 
September  nth.  And  now  I  was  in  Brestovatz,  wrecked 
and  silent,  not  tenanted  even  by  a  solitary  cat.  I  looked 
into  Skobelcff's  quarters  on  the  floor  of  which  still  lay 
some  of  the  many  newspapers  which  he  used  to  receive, 
and  I  read  the  pencil-signature  in  the  door  lintel  of  "  J.  A. 
MacGahan."  The  owner  of  those  initials  was  curiously 
secretive  in  regard  to  them,  and  very  few  knew  for  what 
they  stood.  It  was  by  a  mere  chance  that  I  made  the 
discovery.  He  was  signing  a  transfer  of  some  stock  and  he 
requisitioned  me  as  a  witness.  His  full  name  appeared  in 
the  body  of  the  transfer,  and  that  full  name  was  —  "  Janu- 
arius  Aloysius  MacGahan." 

In  and  about  the  redoubts  on  that  first  knoll  of  the 
"  Green  Hill  "  for  which  the  foes  fought  with  so  bitter  per- 
sistency, lay  many  still  unburied  bodies ;  the  successive 
ridges  of  the  mountain  and  the  intervening  depressions, 
as  well  as  on  the  steep  slope  beyond,  on  the  crest  of  which 
were  the  two  redoubts  with  connecting  entrenchment  which 
were  taken  by  Skobeleff  on  September  nth  with  fearful 
loss  and  held  by  him  with  even  heavier  loss  until  the  after- 
noon of  the  following  day,  were  thickly  strewn  with  the 
corpses  of  Russians  and  Turks  who  died  so  freely  on  those 
bloody  days.     A  few  of  the  bodies  —  for  the  most  part  of 


3o8  Czar  and  Sultan 

Turks  ^ — had  been  sprinkled  over  with  a  few  spadesful  of 
earth,  but  most  of  the  dead  lay  just  as  they  fell,  except 
that  they  had  been  stripped  and  that  the  carrion  dogs  had 
torn  limbs  away  and  the  vultures  had  been  busy  with  the 
eyes.  In  the  shallow  water-puddles  soaked  half-decom- 
posed bodies ;  pale  withered  hands  and  feet  stuck  out  of 
the  shallow  soil,  and  awful  faces  stared  up  from  each  little 
hollow  and  from  out  every  clump  of  scrub.  A  little  nearer 
to  the  town  there  were  some  traces  of  burial-parties  having 
been  at  work  recently,  but  the  interment  was  a  mere  sham 
which  the  first  heavy  fall  of  rain  would  betray ;  and  it  is 
no  exaggeration  to  say  that  the  whole  region  of  which 
Plevna  is  the  centre  was  strewn  thickly  with  the  ghastliest 
mementos  of  the  longer  and  bitter  struggle.  Plevna  may 
be  called  the  modern  Golgotha.  I  remember  you  telling 
me  that  when  you  visited  the  place  sixteen  years  after  the 
last  soldier  fell  around  Plevna,  you  found  skulls  and  other 
bones. 

Around  the  redoubts  the  ground  was  lacerated  with  the 
furrows  of  thousands  of  shells,  and  tons  of  fragments  cov- 
ered the  earth.  Most  of  the  shells  seemed  to  have  fallen 
and  burst  just  in  front  of  the  redoubts;  apparently  few 
entered.  The  whole  surface  of  slopes  and  plain  was 
scooped  into  huge  craters  and  all  about  lay  great  shells 
unexploded.  Far  away  back  in  the  crannies  of  the  hol- 
lows where  the  soldiers  had  their  huts,  bullets,  scraps  of 
clothing,  and  abandoned  equipments  littered  the  ground. 
One  was  constantly  finding  in  the  least-expected  places 
long-unburied  bodies,  or  sodden  in  the  path  the  limbs  of 
fellow-creatures  who  had  fallen  and  lain  till  the  passing 
footsteps  of  the  living  trod  hard  the  thin  layer  of  earth 
over  the  remains. 


CHAPTER   XIII 

GOURKO'S    PASSAGE    OF    THE    BALKANS 

IT  was  on  the  morning  of  the  i8th  December,  in  the 
midst  of  a  heavy  snowstorm,  that  Millett  and  I  rode  out 
of  Plevna  on  our  way  to  join  General  Gourko's  headquar- 
ters. The  Sophia  road  was  cumbered  with  much  traffic 
on  the  Plevna  side  of  the  bridge,  and  our  progress  was 
very  slow ;  but  we  looked  forward  to  being  able  to  travel 
faster  when  once  we  had  crossed  the  Vid.  We  held  our 
nostrils  as  we  pushed  our  horses  through  the  abominable 
stench  that  came  to  us  from  where  the  Turkish  prisoners 
still  stood  huddled  in  the  driving  storm  among  the  mud 
and  filth.  As  far  as  Dolni-Dubnik  the  road  was  pretty 
clear,  but  before  we  reached  Gorni-Dubnik  we  found 
ourselves  jammed  in  the  fag-end  of  Kriidener's  train  of 
waggons  and  baggage  guard.  The  road  was  full  of  im- 
pedimenta from  ditch  to  ditch,  and,  as  if  it  were  any  con- 
solation to  us,  the  sergeant  who  commanded  a  handful  of 
men  whom  he  called  the  rear  guard  told  us  that  the  head 
of  the  column  was  two  days'  march  ahead,  and  that  the 
road  was  full  all  the  way  forward  as  far  as  Jablanitza. 
This  was  a  cheerful  prospect.  There  is  nothing  more 
trying  to  the  temper  of  a  man  on  horseback  than  the  con- 
stant wearing  struggle  to  get  forward  along  a  road  cum- 
bered with  the  miscellaneous  belongings  of  troops  on  the 

309 


3IO  Czar  and  Sultan 

march.  Millett  was  in  despair  at  the  prospect  of  having 
to  bring  up  the  rear  of  those  miles  of  slow-moving  vehicles 
interspersed  with  dreary  convoys  of  Bulgarian  families  on 
their  way  from  Plevna  towards  their  villages,  toiling  along 
the  road  in  painful  procession  through  the  mud,  laden 
with  great  burdens  of  kitchen  utensils  and  bedding  and 
scarcely  moving  half-a-mile  an  hour.  "  Where  does  that 
road  lead  to } "  he  asked  of  a  Bulgarian,  pointing  to  a  road 
branching  from  Gorni-Dubnik  away  to  the  left  front.  Of 
course  the  surly  Bulgar  did  not  know  or  would  not  tell. 
But  just  at  the  moment  I  remembered  that  it  was  by  this 
road  Gourko  had  marched  from  his  camp  at  Cirakova  to 
the  attack  on  Gorni-Dubnik  on  the  morning  of  October 
24th.  We  consulted  our  maps,  and  found  that  from  Cira- 
kova there  was  a  good  road  up  the  valley  of  the  Vid  on 
the  left  of  and  parallel  with  the  main  chaussee  as  far  as 
Tetevan.  From  this  road  we  could  either  cross  to  Jabla- 
nitza,  or  we  might  go  on  by  it  to  Tetevan  and  thence  follow 
the  track  to  Etropol  which  was  taken  by  the  12th  Regi- 
ment to  join  Gourko  on  the  22nd  November. 

We  promptly  made  up  our  minds  to  travel  by  this  road, 
on  which,  as  far  as  the  eye  could  reach,  there  was  not 
a  sign  of  traffic.  Further  on  in  the  mountains  there  was 
the  chance  of  encountering  brigands,  but  we  had  our 
revolvers,  and  as  Millett  placidly  observed,  we  "  took  our 
risks."  We  made  no  halt  in  Cirakova,  but  rode  steadily 
on  until  we  reached  the  village  of  Aglen  a  few  miles 
further  up  the  valley.  The  Cossacks  had  been  in  Aglen 
in  November  but  they  had  not  done  any  serious  damage, 
and  we  found  comfortable  quarters,  food  for  ourselves  and 
plenty  of  hay  and  oats  for  our  horses.     The  Bulgarians 


Gourkds  Passage  of  the  Balkans  3 1 1 

of  Aglen  were  very  eager  to  be  told  some  particulars 
about  the  fall  of  Plevna,  and  they  crowded  our  room  for 
news.  More  snow  had  fallen  during  the  night,  and  we 
congratulated  ourselves  on  the  escape  which  we  had  from 
trudging  in  eighteen  inches  of  snow-slush  behind  Kru- 
dener's  waggons.  We  had,  it  was  true,  the  eighteen  inches 
of  snow  on  our  road,  but  our  horses  plodded  gallantly 
through  it  at  a  brisk  sustained  walk.  We  made  our  mid- 
day halt  at  the  snug  village  of  Toros  situated  very 
picturesquely  under  a  precipice  almost  overhanging  the 
Vid,  where  plenty  abounded  and  where  the  villagers 
seemed  of  quite  a  different  race  from  the  sordid  Rulgars 
of  the  Danubian  plain  country.  They  became  comically 
angry  when  we  made  an  allusion  to  brigands  —  persons 
of  that  profession,  it  appeared,  were  not  well  seen  in  the 
upper  valley  of  the  Vid ;  but  methought  the  villagers  did 
protest  too  much.  We  took  a  very  friendly  farewell  of 
our  ToEos  hosts,  who  may  indeed  have  been  brigands  but 
who  were  so  un-Bylgarian-like  that  they  were  unwilling 
to  accept  the  trifle  we  offered  them,  and  although  at 
length  they  took  payment  for  what  our  horses  had  eaten 
they  resolutely  refused  to  make  any  charge  for  our  own 
food.  In  the  afternoon  we  jogged  on  comfortably  to  a 
wayside  khan  under  the  shoulder  of  Mount  Isvor,  where 
we  spent  the  night  in  a  good  room  on  a  divan  the  cushions 
of  which,  wonderful  to  relate,  harboured  no  vermin. 

Next  morning  we  discussed  our  future  course.  Should 
we  cross  over  to  Jablanitza,  there  rejoin  the  high  road  and 
follow  it  through  Osikovo  to  Orkanie  where,  as  Millett 
believed,  the  headquarters  of  Gourko  now  were  ?  Or 
should  we  continue  on  our  present  road  as  far  as  Tetevan 


312 


Czar  and  Siiltaji 


and  thence  make  for  Etropol,  where  we  were  sure  of 
good  quarters  for  the  night  and  from  which  on  the  follow- 
ing morning  a  few  hours'  riding  by  way  of  Pravetz  and 
Lazan  would  bring  us  into  Orkanie  by  noon  of  the  21st? 
Tetevan,  I  had  heard,  was  an  interesting  hill  town,  but 
at  present  we  were  not  travelling  for  pleasure;  and  the 
landlord  of  the  khan  told  us  that  if  we  were  bound  for 
Etropol  we  ought  to  turn  off  to  the  right  some  distance 
on  the  hither  side  of  Tetevan.  It  was  to  be  a  long  day's 
ride,  and  we  started  early.  After  three  hours'  riding  we 
duly  found  the  turning-off  point,  and  struck  the  hill  track 
by  Brusen  and  Luren  which  was  to  conduct  us  to  Etropol. 
It  was  very  rugged  in  places,  and  we  wondered  a  good 
deal  how  the  12th  Regiment  marching  from  Tetevan  in 
November  could  have  brought  along  its  battery.  But 
it  was  mostly  the  case  that  where  an  ox-waggon  could 
go,  guns  could  go ;  and  deep  as  was  the  snow  we  found 
ox-waggons  here  and  there,  bringing  loads  of  firewood 
from  the  forests  into  the  villages.  One  of  the  surprises 
of  the  Balkans  is  the  number  of  villages  which  everywhere 
nestle  in  the  folds  of  the  mountain-sides.  The  tillage 
climbs  up  the  slopes  almost  to  the  crests ;  where  the  field 
is  too  steep  for  the  plough  the  spade  comes  into  use.  We 
made  a  half-way  halt  at  Brusen  in  the  clean  and  pretty 
cottage  of  the  head-man,  who  was  so  liberal-minded  that 
he  professed  to  have  no  ill-will  against  the  Turks;  and 
that  his  sentiments  were  genuine  was  proved  by  the  fact 
that  several  Turkish  families  were  living  unmolested  in 
Brusen. 

As  we  rode  into  Etropol  Millett  was  received  with  great 
effusion  by  the  nymphs  of  the   fountain,   who  gathered 


Gonrkos  Passao-c  of  the  Balkans 


6^6 


around  him  begging  for  sugar.  He  was  popular ;  I  found 
myself  neglected  by  the  naiads  of  the  Etropol  fountain 
and  rode  on  disconsolately  to  the  Konak,  where  I  took 
unquestioned  possession  of  the  room  in  which  I  had  lain 
ailing  when  previously  in  the  little  town.  Millett,  de- 
spoiled of  part  of  his  sugar,  soon  joined  me ;  but  before 
we  dined  he  had  to  hold  quite  a  levee  of  his  Bulgarian 
friends  of  Etropol,  and  the  "  Bratoushkas "  insisted  on 
embracing  him.  At  last  he  cleared  them  out  in  his  master- 
fully good-humoured  way,  and  we  ate  in  comfort  and  con- 
tentment. Millett  had  already  gathered  some  news.  The 
Balkans  had  already  been  surmounted  on  both  flanks ; 
General  Brock  with  a  brigade  of  the  Guard  was  due  south 
of  us  at  Slatitza,  and  for  quite  a  while  the  Cossacks  had 
been  over  the  great  divide  west  of  the  Baba-Konak  Pass 
and  were  in  full  occupation  of  the  village  of  Curiak  and 
its  vicinity.  Gourko's  advance  was  to  begin  on  the  night 
of  the  24th,  so  we  had  arrived  just  in  the  nick  of  time. 
General  Dandeville  had  quitted  the  Greote  ridge  and  was 
now  down  here  in  Etropol ;  Millett  had  met  him  in  the 
street  and  had  been  asked  to  go  and  drink  tea  with  him 
in  the  evening.  The  Turkish  main  position  on  the  Shan- 
darnik  ridge  was  now  confronted  from  Greote  only  by 
Prince  Oldenburg's  brigade,  rather  a  weak  body  to  oppose 
the  Turkish  main  army  but  for  the  twenty-eight  guns 
which  garnished  his  front ;  and  Count  Schouvaloff  with 
twelve  battalions  of  the  Guard  and  twenty-four  guns  was 
holding  the  mountain  heights  west  of  the  pass  through 
which  went  the  chaussee,  and  threatening  the  left  flank  of 
the  Turkish  position  which  had  been  strengthened  by  an 
important  redoubt  and  formidable  lines  of  entrenchment. 


314  Czar  and  Sultan 

I  wonder  how  long  it  would  have  taken  me  to  amass  all 
that  amount  of  information  which  Millett,  in  his  easy  light- 
hearted  way,  had  gathered  in  the  few  minutes  between  his 
badinage  with  the  maidens  of  the  fountain  and  his  appear- 
ance in  our  room  in  the  Konak. 

Still,  in  return  for  his  budget  of  intelligence,  I  was  able 
to  impart  to  him  a  piece  of  information  which  immediately 
arrested  his  interest,  and  which  I  had  been  quietly  keep- 
ing to  myself  ever  since  we  two  had  left  Plevna.  It  was 
because  of  my  possession  of  this  news  that  I  had  led  up 
strategically  to  our  coming  on  here  to  Etropol,  instead  of 
crossing  over  from  the  Isvorski  khan  to  the  main  chaussee 
at  Jablanitza.  On  the  evening  before  our  departure  from 
Plevna  my  father  had  sent  me  down  from  Tutchenitza  a 
Daily  Nctvs  of  December  5th,  which  contained  a  telegram 
from  Sophia  stating  that  several  English  officers,  Colonels 
Allix,  Baker,  and  Maitland,  Captains  Fife  and  James,  and 
other  English  officers  were  now  with  Mehemet  All's  army 
in  the  Kamarli  position  ;  that  Valentine  Baker  Pasha  and 
Captain  Fred  Burnaby  of  Khiva  renown  had  recently  ar- 
rived, and  that  the  former  had  taken  command  of  Mehemet 
All's  left  wing  on  either  side  of  the  Baba-Konak  Pass.  It 
had  occurred  to  me  as  I  read  this  telegram  that  it  would 
be  a  pleasant  thing  for  me,  although  circumstances  had 
placed  me  on  the  side  where  there  were  no  fellow-country- 
men in  arms,  to  see  British  officers  well  out  to  the  front  as 
they  were  sure  to  be.  Millett  was  an  American,  and  could 
not  be  expected  to  feel  as  I  did  in  this  matter.  But  he 
was  a  fellow  who  was  always  ready  for  an  adventure ;  and 
he  said  in  his  humorous  way  that  he  was  specially  anxious 
to  see  Burnaby  because  when  the  war  was  over  he  had  an 


Gourkos  Passage  of  the  Balkans  315 

idea  of  going  into  the  showman  business,  and  would  be 
glad  to  ascertain  whether  the  biggest  man  in  the  British 
army  would  suit  him  as  his  "boss"  giant. 

My  scheme  was  that  in  the  morning  we  should  ride  up 
on  to  Mont  Greote,  follow  that  ridge,  cross  the  chaussee 
and  join  Count  Schouvaloff's  command  to  the  west  of  it ; 
that  we  should  then  go  out  to  the  foreposts  and  spend 
some  time  there  with  our  glasses.  If  we  had  the  luck  to 
see  some  of  the  English  officers  so  much  the  better ;  if  we 
failed  no  harm  was  done,  and  we  should  ride  on  down  the 
chaussee  into  Orkanie.  Millett  cheerfully  assented ;  and 
at  dawn  of  the  21st  we  were  climbing  up  the  steep  rugged 
road  that  led  up  to  the  heights.  I  had  seen  an  old  map 
in  Tirnova  dated  before  the  present  circuitous  Sophia- 
Plevna  high  road  was  made,  on  which  was  indicated  as  the 
earlier  main  road  this  very  track  on  which  we  were  now 
riding.  It  left  the  present  chaussee  at  Osikovo  and  fol- 
lowed up  the  valley  of  the  Little  Isker,  where  the  stone 
slabs  that  paved  it  were  still  to  be  seen  in  places.  After 
climbing  on  to  the  heights  the  old  road  had  traversed  the 
hollow  between  the  Shandarnik  and  Greote  ridges,  and 
come  out  into  the  Kamarli  plain  over  the  Baba-Konak 
crest.  Long  disused,  this  road  had  been  all  but  bushed 
over  and  had  needed  in  November  to  be  cleared  with  the 
axe  to  make  it  passable,  yet  here  and  there  I  noticed  one 
of  the  great  hewn  stones  which  once  had  paved  it.  Old 
men  in  Etropol  believed  that  it  was  originally  made  by  the 
Romans. 

Prince  Oldenburg's  people  on  the  Greote  ridge  were 
chiefly  engaged  in  shivering,  notwithstanding  the  great 
fires  they  kept.     It  had  been  evident  for  some  time  that 


3i6  Czar  and  Saltan 


Gourko  would  either  have  to  abandon  his  upland  positions 
about  the  Baba-Konak  region  or  else  cross  the  range  at 
any  cost,  for  the  severity  of  the  weather  had  made  it  all 
but  impossible  to  bring  up  supplies  and  ammunition,  and 
life  in  the  encampments,  or  rather  bivouacs,  on  the  moun- 
tain had  become  daily  more  and  more  arduous.  Scarcely 
a  night  had  passed  but  frozen  hands  and  feet  were  counted 
by  hundreds.  Thirty  soldiers  had  been  frozen  to  death 
during  four  days  of  the  storm,  and  the  number  of  sick 
from  exposure  amounted  to  more  than  2,000.  The  thin 
shelter-tents,  torn  by  the  wind  and  with  difficulty  kept 
pegged  to  the  ground  during  the  gales,  had  now  been  to 
some  extent  exchanged  for  rude  huts  covered  with  logs 
and  turf,  and  for  holes  dug  in  the  steep  banks  among  the 
trees.  We  rode  along  the  ridge  where  once  whistled  the 
Turkish  bullets  ;  but  now  the  Turks  were  too  chilled  by 
cold  to  take  pot-shots  at  a  couple  of  men  on  horseback. 
We  were  fired  at  not  more  than  twice  or  thrice  during  the 
ride  along  the  ridge;  as  we  came  down  into  the  pass, 
however,  where  the  cold  was  not  intense,  we  were  treated 
with  less  indifference  from  the  two  great  Turkish  redoubts 
on  either  side  of  the  ravine.  We  rode  across  the  chaussee, 
where  the  Turks  wasted  a  shell  on  us,  scrambled  through 
the  rocky  bed  of  the  Dermente,  and  in  ten  minutes  more 
were  in  the  headquarter  of  Count  Schouvaloff.  That  was 
in  a  sheltered  hollow;  but  his  batteries  on  the  crest  in 
front  were  right  on  the  Turkish  flank,  and  the  Russian 
fire  enfiladed  their  redoubts  on  both  sides  of  the  defile.  I 
asked  Count  Schouvaloff  whether  any  English  officers  had 
been  recognised  on  the  Turkish  side. 

"Yes,    indeed,"   he    exclaimed  —  "quite    a   number   of 


Gonrkds  Passage  of  the  Balkans  317 

them !  You  can  see  them  for  yourself  if  you  care  to  go 
up  yonder.  Two  of  them  are  old  friends  of  mine,  and  I 
should  like  nothing  better  than  to  ask  them  to  come  over 
and  dine  with  me.  You  arc  too  young  to  have  been  in  the 
Aldershot  autumn  manoeuvres  in  1871,  else  you  might 
remember  the  ofHcer  of  the  Russian  Guards  who  rode 
with  the  Prince  of  Wales  and  Valentine  Baker  at  the  head 
of  the  lOth  Hussars.  I  was  that  officer;  and  poor  Baker 
was  the  finest  light-cavalry  officer  I  ever  saw.  Had  he 
belonged  to  us,  do  you  think  we  should  have  lost  him  to 
the  service  he  adorned  because  of  a  piece  of  wretched 
private  folly }  Pshaw !  what  a  square-toed  prudish  folk 
you  English  are !  If  Valentine  Baker  would  only  forsake 
those  tatterdemalion  Turks  and  come  over  the  trenches  to 
us,  I'll  engage  the  Czar  would  make  him  a  full  general 
within  a  month  !  Burnaby  !  yes,  you  may  see  that  huge 
droll  fellow  as  like  as  not,  if  you  care  to  go  up  into  the 
entrenchments.  He  is  quite  mad  of  course  —  always  was, 
and  he  hates  us.  But  he  was  my  guest  at  the  mess  of  the 
Garde  du  Corps  when  he  was  last  in  St.  Petersburg,  and  our 
crack  giant,  old  Protassoff-Bakmetieff,  was  not  in  it  with 
Burnaby  either  in  stature  or  in  strength.  By  George !  " 
exclaimed  Schouvaloff,  "  I'll  give  you  a  flag  of  truce,  and 
if  you  can  persuade  Baker  and  Burnaby  to  come  back 
with  you  and  dine  with  us,  I  shall  be  delighted  beyond 
measure !  " 

Just  then  there  broke  out  the  rattle  of  a  sharp  mus- 
ketry-fire. "  Oh,  that  is  nothing  !  "  exclaimed  Schouvaloff ; 
but  Millett  and  I  ran  up  the  steep  ascent,  passed  through 
the  quiescent  batteries,  and  scudded  out  into  the  advanced 
entrenchment.     Schouvaloff's  orderly  officer  came  with  us, 


3i8  Czar  and  Sultart 

and  pointed  out  how  easily  the  Russians  could  work  down 
into  the  valley  below  without  using  the  Baba-Konak  Pass 
at  all.  There  were  not  150  paces  between  the  Russian 
and  Turkish  entrenchments.  The  firing  was  pretty  sharp, 
and  we  were  not  at  all  ashamed  to  accept  the  cover  the 
breastwork  afforded.  "  Look  !  "  exclaimed  Schouvaloff' s 
orderly  —  "You  see  these  two  men  on  the  top  of  the 
Turkish  parapet }  The  big  man  standing  up  and  show- 
ing us  his  full  front  is  Burnaby ;  the  other  one  in  the 
fez,  sitting  down  with  his  legs  dangling  over  the  entrench- 
ment, is  Baker !  "  Yes,  there  they  were,  calm  and  uncon- 
cerned in  the  Russian  fire !  My  heart  swelled,  and  the 
water  came  into  my  eyes.  The  Russians  are  brave  men ; 
but  in  all  the  Russian  host  I  had  seen  but  one  man  so 
daring  —  that  was  Skobeleff,  and  he  only  when  urgent 
occasion  demanded.  And  there  were  my  two  country- 
men, quietly  and  undramatically  exposing  themselves  as 
a  matter  of  course,  to  hearten  their  wretched  "  Mustafiz  " 
—  I  knew  by  the  uniform  that  their  men  were  not 
"  Nizams." 

My  boys,  wouldn't  you  have  been  glad  and  proud  to 
witness  that  little  piece  of  quiet  unostentatious  heroism .'' 
I  know  I  was,  yet  my  heart  ached,  for  the  chances  were 
all  against  our  gallant  countrymen.  Millett  too  was 
moved,  for  as  he  said,  quoting  the  words  of  old  Com- 
modore Tatnall,  "  blood  is  thicker  than  water."  We  went 
back  into  the  valley,  drank  a  glass  of  tea  with  Count 
Schouvaloff,  and  then  rode  away  down  the  deep  valley 
of  the  Dermente  into  Orkanie.  About  half-way  between 
Baba-Konak  and  Orkanie,  a  tributary  rivulet  comes  in 
from   the    Etropol    Balkans  west  of  the  chaussee  to  join 


Gourkos  Passage  of  the  Balkans  319 


the  Dermente.  There  were  evidences  of  rough  road- 
making  along  the  ravine  formed  by  this  tributary,  which 
had  cut  for  itself  a  ravine  among  the  lower  hills  under 
the  huge  mountainous  mass  forming  the  divide  of  the 
range.  "What  do  you  imagine  is  going  on  there?"  I 
asked  of  Millett.  "  I  don't  know,"  was  his  reply,  "  but 
I  guess  it  is  the  beginning  of  the  '  Sappers'  road '  which 
they  had  begun  to  talk  of  in  Gourko's  headquarters  be- 
fore I  left  Orkanie.  Stay,  here  is  a  picket;  let  us  ask 
the  corporal."  But  the  corporal  was  either  a  dull  man 
or  a  secretive  man ;  we  could  extract  nothing  from  that 
worthy  but  stolid  Muscovite.  Three  days  more,  and  we 
were  to  make  a  personal  acquaintance  with  the  "  Sappers' 
road  "  of  an  extremely  rough  and  unpleasant  character. 

Three  miles  nearer  to  Orkanie  we  reached  the  northern 
entrance  to  the  pass  at  the  village  of  Vratches.  It  was 
well  for  the  Russians  that  Gourko's  life-sparing  strategy 
had  nullified  the  Turkish  position  on  the  slopes  behind 
this  village  by  seizing  the  Greote  position  in  its  rear. 
Line  upon  line  of  entrenchments  rose  one  above  another 
on  the  rise  behind  Vratches,  constructed  with  a  skill  and 
care  that  put  to  shame  the  most  elaborate  of  the  Russian 
fortifications  about  Plevna  and  proved  for  the  hundredth 
time  the  great  superiority  of  the  Turkish  engineers  alike 
in  designing  and  finishing  their  works.  If  the  task  had 
become  essential  for  the  Russians  to  assail  those  lines, 
the  issue  would  have  been  extremely  doubtful  for  the  men 
whom  the  comparatively  petty  obstacle  of  the  Gravitza 
redoubt  so  long  kept  at  bay. 

As  we  rode  into  Orkanie  Millett  told  me  of  what  he 
called  the  "  sugar  famine  "  in  Etropol,  and  afterwards  for 


320  Czar  and  Sultan 

a  day  or  two  when  the  headquarters  had  been  moved 
to  Orkanie.  He  mentioned  what  I  was  not  aware  of,  that 
the  Russian  officer  has  a  very  sweet  tooth  and  suffers 
greatly  when  he  is  deprived  of  his  luxury.  "  Fortu- 
nately," said  Millett,  "a  sutler  arrived  presently  with  an 
immense  train  of  waggons  laden  with  every  kind  of 
groceries,  delicacies,  and  small  wares,  and  began  to  unpack 
his  goods  in  an  empty  shop  opposite  the  general's  head- 
quarters. The  news  of  this  arrival  spread  more  quickly 
than  even  the  report  of  the  fall  of  Plevna,  if  one  could 
judge  by  the  crowd  of  officers  of  every  rank  that  be- 
sieged the  entrances  to  the  shop  long  before  the  pro- 
prietor was  at  all  in  readiness  for  the  opening  of  his 
establishment.  The  covers  were  off  some  of  the  cases 
disclosing  sugar,  preserves,  bottles,  and  stationery,  and 
the  attraction  was  too  great  to  be  resisted,  so  the  crowd 
entered  the  shop  in  a  fuss  of  good-natured  hustling  and 
shouldering,  and  began  to  pile  up  the  commodities  which 
each  man  most  wanted  with  a  recklessness  that  would 
have  driven  to  insanity  a  methodical  shopkeeper.  This 
enterprising  Roumanian  Jew  was  at  their  mercy,  and  he 
gave  the  masterful  customers  their  will  perforce.  They 
dived  into  the  great  cases,  fishing  out  with  shouts  of 
delight  all  kinds  of  bon-bons  and  candies,  jams,  and 
jellies,  which  they  laid  hold  of  with  the  eagerness  of 
children  and  began  to  devour  on  the  spot.  The  sutler 
and  his  assistants  could  do  nothing  but  make  spasmodic 
efforts  to  regulate  the  distribution  of  the  stores,  attempts 
which  only  made  the  confusion  worse  confounded ;  and 
the  happy  crowd  elbowed  and  pushed  and  continued  to 
help  themselves  in  fullest  freedom.     As  each  officer  gath- 


Gourkos  Passage  of  the  Balkans  321 

ered  the  stock  which  he  had  annexed  he  was  as  impatient 
to  pay  for  it  as  he  had  been  to  get  hold  of  it,  and  although 
the  sutler  calmly  took  four  times  the  price  at  which  he 
had  bought  his  goods  at  Bucharest  his  tariff  was  never 
called  in  question.  Bright  new  gold-pieces  jingled  into 
his  canvas  bag  in  a  steady  stream,  making  music  that 
would  have  delighted  the  ears  of  a  miser.  No  doubt  the 
glitter  of  the  gold  blinded  his  eyes  to  the  scene  of  inde- 
scribable confusion  which  his  shop  presented  when  at 
length  his  customers  had  carried  away  with  them  their 
purchases." 

I  had  not  been  an  hour  in  Orkanie  before  I  recognised 
that  Millett  was  a  power  in  Gourko's  army.  Every  second 
ofificer  we  met  as  we  rode  along  towards  his  house  accosted 
the  American  war  correspondent  with  great  cordiality. 
When  the  headquarter  came  into  Orkanie  early  in  Decem- 
ber, he  had  ridden  on  ahead  and  had  found  unoccupied  a 
snug  little  isolated  house  in  the  main  street  with  four  good 
rooms  and  a  large  courtyard.  He  found  a  character  given 
to  it  in  advance.  It  had  been  occupied  by  the  English 
surgeons  with  the  Turkish  army,  and  when  the  time  came 
for  them  to  depart  one  of  them  had  written  on  the  white- 
washed wall  an  advice  to  any  fellow-countryman  who 
should  enter  with  Gourko  in  the  following  words :  "  Re- 
quisition this  house;  it  is  the  best  in  the  place."  Millett 
was  not  an  Englishman,  but  he  considered  that  his  being 
of  Anglo-Saxon  descent  entitled  him  to  take  possession, 
which  he  accordingly  did.  He  occupied  it  without  dispute 
until  he  left  for  Plevna  on  the  news  of  its  fall,  leaving  in 
possession  a  couple  of  his  servants  in  charge  of  as  many 
horses.     But  he  was  no  dos:  in  the  mansrer.     He  had  located 


32  2  Czar  and  Sultan 

in  it  a  couple  of  sub-tenants  in  Prince  Tzeretleff  and 
another  officer  of  Gourko's  staff,  who  volunteered  to  quit 
now  that  he  had  come  back  to  "  enjoy  his  ain  again." 
But  this  Millett  would  not  suffer.  There  was  room  enough 
in  the  little  house  not  only  for  Millett  and  the  two  staff 
officers  but  also  for  myself,  a  favour  for  which  I  was  very 
thankful.  For  I  came  soon  to  know  what  hardships  not 
only  men  but  officers  were  enduring  in  the  bitter  winter 
cold  —  how  bitter  you  may  conceive  when  I  tell  you  that 
the  Reaumur  thermometer  marked  seventeen  degrees  of 
cold.  General  officers  were  quartered  in  fireless  rooms 
and  in  mud  huts.  Officers  kept  arriving  at  all  hours  of 
the  day  and  night,  many  having  travelled  on  foot  all  the 
way  from  Osikovo,  unable  to  get  forward  on  horseback 
because  the  road  was  blocked  by  artillery  and  trams, 
exhausted  almost  to  inanition,  and  searching  everywhere 
in  vain  for  shelter  even  of  the  meanest  kind.  There  was  a 
temporary  dearth  of  almost  all  supplies.  The  salt  gave 
out,  and  even  bread  was  at  ransom  price.  Tzeretleff 
assured  us  that  one  day  he  had  paid  fifteen  francs  for  a 
loaf  that  he  could  have  eaten  at  one  meal.  Fuel  was 
almost  an  unattainable  luxury  notwithstanding  that  there 
were  almost  boundless  forests  close  round  the  town ;  but 
all  the  carts  were  employed  in  bringing  in  wood  for  the 
hospitals  and  the  baking  ovens.  There  were  many  cases 
of  frozen  hands  and  feet  in  the  town  itself  among  the  poor 
patient  soldiers  trying  to  shelter  themselves  in  the  lee  of 
banks  of  snow  or  cowering  in  close  groups  round  meagre 
fires.  The  hedges  and  hurdle  fences  had  long  ago  been 
used  up,  and  many  of  the  houses  had  been  gutted  for  the 
sake  of  their  timbers.     Very  few  of  the  soldiers  had  any 


Gourkos  Passage  of  the  Balkans  323 

more  clothing  than  that  which  they  had  brought  from 
Russia,  and  they  could  not  afford  to  buy  sheepskin  coats 
from  the  Bulgarians.  Before  we  left  Plevna  Skobeleff  had 
been  doing  this  for  his  men  from  his  own  resources,  or 
rather  from  those  of  "  Papa,"  in  anticipation  of  the  cold 
on  the  Schipka,  and  he  thus  preserved  many  lives.  Gourko 
did  not  concern  himself  with  such  matters  and  the  soldiers 
suffered  in  their  worn  and  tattered  greatcoats.  Most  of 
them  had  in  good  preservation  the  spare  pair  of  boots 
which  they  had  carried  from  Russia;  but  I  noticed  that  a  good 
many  of  them  were  wearing  foot-coverings  and  leggings 
of  raw  hide  instead  of  worn-out  boots. 

The  morning  after  our  arrival  Millett  and  myself  waited 
on  General  Gourko.  He  was  busy  writing,  but  he  laid  his 
pen  aside,  called  for  tea,  gave  us  a  friendly  welcome,  and 
asked  for  the  news  from  Plevna.  Millett  told  him  about 
the  cruel  ruin  of  Osman's  soldiers  in  their  mud  bivouacs 
on  the  plain.  I  gave  him  a  short  account  of  the  sortie  of 
the  Turkish  army  on  the  morning  of  the  loth.  "Ah," 
said  Gourko,  —  "I  wish  I  had  seen  that  affair,  and  had 
the  opportunity  of  shaking  hands  with  Osman !  Was  his 
wound  a  severe  one?"  I  could  give  him  no  details  except 
that  the  wound  was  in  the  leg,  but  said  that  I  inferred  it 
could  not  have  been  dangerous  since  Osman  had  been  able 
to  set  out  on  his  journey  towards  Bucharest. 

"  You  wish,  I  suppose,"  said  the  general,  "  to  know 
something  about  our  intended  dispositions .''  You  will  find 
General  Naglovski  in  the  next  room,  and  he  will  give  you 
full  information.  No  man  can  do  that  better,  for  the  de- 
tails of  the  whole  scheme  have  been  drawn  up  by  him. 
I  need  not  introduce  you;  —  both  of  you  know  him." 


324  Czar  and  Sultan 

Naglovski  was  a  smart  and  dapper  little  man  ;  he  be- 
longed to  the  Engineer  branch  of  the  service  and  was 
understood  to  be  an  officer  of  exceptional  skill.  He  was 
cordial  enough  ;  his  manner  was  a  good  deal  that  of  a 
professor  teaching  a  class,  only  that  he  was  more  informal. 

"  First,"  said  he  as  he  unfolded  his  maps,  "  I  ought  to 
tell  you  what  we  believe  to  be  the  strength  of  the  enemy 
in  our  front.  In  all  we  take  them  to  be  about  35,000 
infantry,  some  2,000  regular  cavalry,  swarms  of  Tcher- 
kesses  and  Bashi-Bazouks,  and  about  40  guns.  We  be- 
lieve that  there  are  of  this  number  25,000  men  with  20 
guns  in  the  Shandarnik  and  Baba-Konak  positions  on  the 
summit  right  and  left  of  the  defile  traversed  by  the 
chaussee.  Up  at  Lutikova,  some  miles  north-west  of  us 
in  Orkanie  here,  are  about  5,000  men  with  four  guns  ; 
there  are  about  the  same  number  about  Slatitza  on  the 
road  to  Karlovo  and  Schipka ;  and  at  Sophia  there  is  a 
reserve  of  perhaps  twelve  or  fifteen  thousand  men  with 
about  twenty  guns.  So  much  for  the  Turks,"  said 
Naglovski. 

"We,"  he  continued,  "have  the  good  fortune  to  be 
about  double  their  strength  now  that  the  reinforcements 
from  Plevna  have  nearly  all  arrived.  We  have  65,000 
infantry,  6,000  cavalry,  and,  all  told,  about  280  guns.  We 
have  81  battalions  available  besides  the  three  which  are 
standing  fast  at  Vraca,  away  to  the  northward  beyond  the 
Isker.  Our  plan,  in  a  word,  is  to  maintain  a  curtain  of 
troops  opposite  to  each  of  the  Turkish  positions  in  order 
to  detain  the  enemy  from  withdrawing ;  to  send  a  strong 
column  over  the  Balkan  summit  to  turn  the  left  flank  of 
the   main   Turkish   position  and   debouch  on   the   Sophia 


Goiirkds  Passage  of  the  Balkans  325 

plain,  and  to  pass  smaller  columns  over  the  Balkans  on 
our  own  extreme  right  and  left  flanks.  That  is  what  we 
tacticians  call  the  *  General  Idea  '  ;  the  '  Special  Idea  '  I 
will  now  explain.  Old  Grandfather  Kriidcner  will  have 
the  command  of  what  I  call  the  four  '  waiting  '  detach- 
ments, consisting  in  all  of  34  battalions.  One  of  these 
detachments  General  Schilder-Schuldner  takes  towards 
Lutikova,  Prince  Oldenburg  with  another  remains  on  the 
Greote  ridge.  Count  Schouvaloff  stands  opposite  to  the 
Turks  west  of  Baba-Konak,  and  General  Brock  is  at 
Slatitza.  These  detachments  are  to  remain  in  position, 
bombard  the  Turkish  positions,  and  attack  promptly  on 
any  sign  of  retreat. 

"  The  main  turning  column  will  cross  the  Balkan  sum- 
mit by  what  we  call  the  '  Sappers'  road,'  and  descend  into 
the  Sophia  valley  by  Curiak.  General  Ranch  is  to  have 
the  advance  consisting  of  13  battalions  with  16  guns  and 
1 1  sotnias  of  Cossacks.  We  expect  him  to  start  from 
here  before  daybreak  on  Christmas  morning ;  he  ought 
to  be  at  Curiak  that  same  evening,  and  on  the  morning  of 
the  26th,  coming  down  into  the  valley,  he  is  to  take  up  a 
position  on  the  Sophia  road  about  Malinne.  The  main 
column  will  consist  of  the  3rd  Guard  Division  (18  bat- 
talions and  24  guns)  commanded  by  General  Kataley ; 
following  the  advance  over  the  Balkan  summit  it  will 
occupy  on  the  26th  the  villages  of  Rasdanie  and  Stolnik 
near  the  chaussee  to  the  left  of  Ranch  and  so  nearer 
Sophia.  General  Wilhelminoff  with  a  brigade  of  infantry, 
16  squadrons  and  two  batteries,  will  cross  the  mountains 
further  west  and  debouch  on  the  26th  at  Zilava,  west  of 
the  main  column ;  and  General  Dandeville  starting  from 


326  Czar  and  Sriltan 

Etropol  with  a  brigade,  a  battery,  and  some  cavalry,  will 
demonstrate  on  the  right  and  rear  of  the  Turkish  main 
position,  and  come  down  into  the  Kamarli  plain  on  the 
26th.  By  the  evening  of  that  day,"  said  Naglovski,  "  we 
hope  to  have  at  least  30,000  men  on  the  other  side  of  the 
Balkans.  And,"  he  continued,  "  we  hope  to  accomplish 
this  without  encountering  any  opposition.  General  Gourko 
would  fain  effect  the  crossing  without  the  loss  of  a  man. 
The  commander  of  the  Sapper  battalion  of  the  Guard  has 
reported  that  the  road  will  be  practicable  for  artillery  by 
the  25th.  I  have  myself  been  over  it  and  down  into 
Curiak,  where  the  Cossacks  have  been  for  the  last  three 
weeks.  I  confess  I  thought  the  Sapper  colonel  rather 
sanguine,  for  once  out  of  the  ravine  the  best  parts  of  the 
track  had  a  slope  of  one  in  six,  and  in  the  worst  of  one  in 
three.  So  I  have  turned  on  the  Preobrazhensky  regiment 
to  improve  the  grades,  widen  the  path  throughout  its  whole 
extent,  and  cut  steps  in  the  ice  in  the  steepest  places  up 
to  the  summit.  General  Gourko  himself  passed  over  it 
yesterday  and  has  pronounced  it  practicable." 

We  thanked  Naglovski  and  took  our  departure  to  visit 
the  Red  Cross  Ambulance  bearing  the  name  and  under 
the  protection  of  the  Grand  Duchess  Alexandra  Petrovna 
the  wife  of  the  Commander-in-Chief,  which  had  made  its 
way  right  up  to  the  front  and  established  an  hospital  in 
Orkanie.  I  had  already  known  of  its  devoted  services  to 
the  great  mass  of  wounded  at  Gorni-Dubnik,  and  I  had 
seen  its  surgeons  at  work  in  the  fighting  line  before  Plevna 
in  September,  after  which  the  Emperor  visited  its  hospital 
in  Bogot  and  personally  thanked  the  Sisters  for  their 
devoted    ministrations    to    his    wounded    soldiers.      In    its 


Goiirkds  Passage  of  the  Balkans  327 

hospital  up  here  in  Orkanic  we  found  120  patients  in  the 
midst  of  comfort  and  cleanHness.  Its  directors  had  the 
humanity  to  estabhsh  a  number  of  food  stations  between 
the  front  and  Plevna,  where  warm  and  nourishing  suste- 
nance was  supplied  to  the  sick  and  wounded  travelling  in 
the  transport  trains  towards  the  rear.  It  was  said  at  the 
time  that  English  solicitude  for  the  victims  of  war  was 
wholly  confined  to  the  Turks.  That  this  was  not  so  there 
was  convincing  proof  in  the  provision-room  of  the  Russian 
hospital  in  Orkanie,  where  I  found  a  number  of  cases 
which  bore  the  label  that  they  had  been  sent  by  Colonel 
Loyd  Lindsay  in  the  name  of  the  British  Society  for  the 
Aid  of  the  Sick  and  Wounded  in  War.  I  was  told  that 
already  there  had  been  distributed  tea,  sugar,  canned  pro- 
visions and  spirits  to  many  Russian  hospitals  in  Bulgaria 
—  part  of  the  supplies  which  English  philanthropists  had 
sent  to  alleviate  the  sufferings  of  the  sick  and  wounded 
Russian  soldiers. 

Orkanie  had  a  very  dismal  aspect  on  Christmas  morning 
in  a  thick  black  fog  that  was  clammy  till  it  froze.  Ranch 
and  his  command  had  started  long  before  the  grey  dawn  ; 
I  remember  turning  round  for  a  final  sleep  after  I  had 
heard  the  reveille  sound.  Millett's  head-man  was  an 
admirable  caterer  and  our  final  breakfast  in  Orkanie  was 
quite  his  masterpiece.  Flasks  were  replenished  and  hav- 
ersacks were  filled,  sheepskin  coats  and  fur  boots  were 
drawn  on,  and  Millett  distributed  loose  silver  among  a 
bevy  of  children  and  a  batch  of  crones  to  whom  the  kind- 
hearted  fellow  had  been  good  during  his  term  of  residence 
in  the  snug  little  house  which  we  were  all  loath  to  leave  ; 
and  then  we  mounted  and  joined  the  group  of  Gourko's 


328  Czar  and  Sultan 

staff  in  front  of  the  Konak.  A  photographer  ought  to 
have  been  on  the  spot.  Some  of  the  officers  wore  volumi- 
nous greatcoats  of  dressed  skins,  the  hair  inside,  the 
leather  outside  —  ornamented  with  fantastic  embroidery 
and  silver  clasps.  Others  were  wrapped  in  Circassian 
cloaks  of  several  thicknesses  of  padding  and  material, 
their  heads  enveloped  in  bashliks  and  capuchons.  The 
general  alone  wore  no  wrap.  As  he  rode  in  front  of  the 
cortege,  that  iron  man  was  visible  to  us  in  strictly  correct 
military  attire  —  the  dark-coloured  f rogged  surtout  which 
an  officer  told  me  was  the  undress  uniform  of  the  Guard 
Cavalry,  buckskin  gloves  and  cavalry  boots.  He  rode 
along  apparently  unconscious  that  the  hoar-frost  was 
whitening  his  beard  and  covering  him  and  his  horse  with 
frozen  crystals.  I  wondered  beyond  measure  that  the 
cruel  cold  did  not  strike  him  to  the  bone.  But  he  did 
not  seem  to  feel  it  in  the  least.  My  teeth  were  chattering 
already  and  I  could  not  have  written  my  name,  so  numbed 
and  dead  were  my  fingers,  if  the  simple  signature  would 
have  made  me  a  millionaire.  But  Gourko's  teeth  did  not 
chatter  ;  and  more  than  once  I  saw  him  pull  off  his  right 
glove  and  sign  an  order  with  the  pencil  which  he  always 
carried  stuck  between  the  buttons  of  his  frock-coat. 

The  fog  remained  pretty  dense  until  we  had  passed 
Vratches,  when  it  gradually  thinned  and  the  white  moun- 
tain-tops whose  sunny  sides  the  sun  was  illuminating 
shone  through  the  haze  as  if  hung  in  the  air,  their 
lower  shoulders  still  shrouded  in  mist.  Presently  we 
emerged  altogether  from  out  the  bank  of  fog  and  there 
came  in  our  faces  a  warm  wind  from  the  sOuth,  wafted 
to    us,   as    I    supposed,    from   the    Sophia    plain    through 


Gotirkos  Passage  of  the  Balkans  329 


the  Baba-Konak  Pass,  which  melted  the  frost  and  thawed 
the  ice  on  the  chaussce.     Millett  had  been  right  in   his 
conjecture  of    the    21st.     The    narrow    and  tangled  glen 
down  which  came  to  the  Dermente  its  tributary  from  the 
Etropol  Balkans,  was  to  be  traversed  by  the  30,000  men 
with   whom    Gourko   was   to    essay   the    passage    of    the 
mountains.     As    the    crow    flies,    from    Orkanie    on    one 
side  of  the   Balkans  to  the  Sophia  plain  at  Rasdanie  on 
the    other  was  not  more  than  fifteen  miles,   and  by  the 
track  taken  by  the  column  was  probably  not  more  than 
twenty  miles  —  a   long  but   not   very  exceptional   march 
over  a  reasonably  favourable  country.     In  what  strange 
sanguine  hallucination  Gourko  and  Naglovski  could  have 
allowed    themselves    to    imagine    that     in     the     Balkan 
mid-winter    an   army    30,000   strong   could   traverse    the 
distance  I  have    specified,  climb  and  descend  the  moun- 
tains at  almost  their  highest  elevation  by  a  track  which 
even  as  improved  could  not   be  called   a   road,  yet  over 
which  the    army  had  to  haul  its  guns  and  caissons  and 
debouch  on  the  confines  of  the  Sophia    plain    within    a 
period  of   twenty-four   hours,   of   which  only  eight  were 
in  daylight,  was  to  me,  lad  as  I  was,  simply  incompre- 
hensible;    but  I   kept  my  sentiments  to  myself.     Millett 
was    not   so  reticent.     "This  is  going  to  be  a  long  job, 
young  man  !  "  he  remarked.     "  I  shall  be  greatly  surprised 
if  Gourko  be  in  Sophia  by  New  Year's  day !  " 

We  were  told  that  the  Preobrazhensky  regiment  had 
crossed  the  summit  during  the  previous  night,  and  was 
already  in  Curiak.  The  ravine  as  we  looked  into  it 
seemed  full  of  men,  but  there  was  no  progression  to 
speak  of  —  the  column  did  not  move  forward  at  the  rate 


330  Czar  and  Sultan 

of  a  rod  an  hour.  There  seemed  a  lack  of  system,  and 
there  certainly  was  a  lack  of  enthusiasm.  Before  we  had 
reached  Vratches  I  had  observed  men  falling  out  and 
lying  down  by  the  wayside  although  they  had  marched 
only  a  couple  of  miles.  The  kibitkas  of  the  Red  Cross 
established  where  the  "Sappers'  road"  left  the  chaussee 
were  already  full  of  men  who  had  given  out  or  had  in- 
jured themselves  by  falling  on  the  ice.  In  the  afternoon 
Millett  and  I,  tired  of  inaction,  moved  forward  up  the  track 
in  the  ravine.  We  could  get  along  but  slowly,  for  the  way 
was  all  but  completely  blocked  by  guns  and  infantry. 
Idleness  everywhere  prevailed ;  nowhere  was  there  any 
zeal  or  energy.  The  men  had  made  fires  all  along  the 
path  and  were  cooking  their  suppers  or  lying  asleep  in 
the  warmth.  I  remarked  to  Millett  how  great  was  the 
contrast  between  the  lassitude  we  were  now  witnessing, 
and  the  energy  and  endurance  the  same  men  had  shown 
in  the  rougher  work  of  Ranch's  expedition  which  I 
had  accompanied  in  November.  "  In  one  sense,"  replied 
Millett,  "it  is  true  that  they  are  the  same  men;  in 
another  they  are  very  different  men.  Their  systems  have 
been  run  down  by  cold  and  exposure ;  the  starch  is 
temporarily  out  of  them.  They  are  soft  and  flaccid 
from  long  inaction  in  the  positions.  They  will  rally 
by-and-by,  but  Naglovski  will  find  himself  quite  out  in 
the  estimate  he  gave  us  of  the  time  that  the  passage 
of  the  mountains  would  take.  I  expect  when  we  go 
up  we  shall  find  Ranch  jumping  mad." 

We  scrambled  out  of  the  ravine  and  went  up  the  face 
of  the  steep  ascent.  It  was  not  very  difficult  at  first, 
but  presently  we  came  to  a  bad  place  where  a  half-battery 


Gourkds  Passage  of  the  Balkans  331 

with  its  caissons  was  being  hauled  up  by  hand,  the  pitch 
being  over-steep  for  the  horse-teams.  The  ropes  were 
too  short,  affording  room  for  only  about  sixty  men  to 
haul  on  each  piece.  The  men  on  this  service  were  not 
the  stalwart  soldiers  of  the  Guard,  but  young  undersized 
linesmen  from  the  recent  reinforcements  who  had  suf- 
fered from  the  long  march  from  Plevna  through  the 
snowstorms,  and  who,  having  no  heart  for  the  work, 
went  about  the  business  with  exasperating  slowness  and 
stupidity.  Ranch  was  at  this  point  in  a  white-heat  of 
energy,  encouraging,  abusing,  appealing  to  the  officers 
to  exert  themselves  and  make  their  men  do  the  same, 
stamping,  swearing,  even  catching  hold  of  a  rope-end 
himself  ;  but  all  to  no  purpose  —  the  men  were  listless 
and  apathetic.  We  left  that  sorely-tried  chief  and  went 
on,  to  find  the  distances  between  the  cannon  longer  and 
longer.  Now  there  was  not  even  the  pretence  of  exer- 
tion. It  mattered  not  that  the  essence  of  the  enterprise, 
if  Naglovski's  scheme  were  to  be  carried  out  on  his  lines, 
was  that  the  army  and  its  guns  should  have  made  the 
passage  of  the  mountain  before  daylight  next  morning. 
The  Preobrazhenskys  were  isolated  down  in  Curiak  and 
the  Turks,  if  they  had  any  energy,  might  snatch  the 
opportunity  to  assail  them.  Nevertheless  as  we  ap- 
proached the  summit  we  found  the  men  placidly  resting 
everywhere.  The  officers  lay  down  and  slept.  The  men 
snuggled  together  round  their  fires  or  scooped  holes  in 
the  snow  in  which  they  peacefully  slumbered.  In  vain 
Ranch  stormed  back  and  forth  striving  in  vain  to  stimu- 
late the  fellows  into  action.  Now  and  then  he  succeeded 
in  rousing  an  officer  who  made  a  foray  among  the  sleep- 


332  Czar  and  Sultan 

ing  soldiers  and  forced  them  to  their  feet.  Then 
what  happened  ?  The  soldiers  did  not  grumble,  but 
simply  walked  away  a  few  paces,  dropped  in  their  tracks, 
and  went  to  sleep  as  they  fell.  The  officer,  himself  a 
practical  philosopher,  followed  the  example  of  the  soldiers. 

Chafing  at  the  delay  and  impatient  to  exert  himself  in 
dealing  with  it,  Gourko  himself,  along  with  his  staff,  came 
up  towards  the  summit  about  midnight.  He  had  travelled 
along  a  lane  fringed  by  soldiers  who  were  either  asleep  or 
whom  no  stimulus  could  stir  into  exertion.  The  general 
had  to  realise  that  for  the  time  there  was  no  help  for  a 
situation  which  was  so  utterly  unexpected.  We  were  sup- 
ping from  the  contents  of  our  wallets  beside  a  Cossack 
fire  close  to  the  summit  when  the  general  and  his  staff 
arrived.  "  Let  us  go  to  sleep  !  "  said  he,  "  we  can  do  noth- 
ing for  the  present !  "  The  Cossacks  gave  up  their  fire  to 
the  general  and  his  staff  and  made  another  for  themselves  ; 
they  piled  up  a  bank  of  snow  behind  the  chief  to  fend 
from  him  the  icy  wind  blowing  across  the  range,  and  pres- 
ently Gourko  was  snoring  with  vigour.  As  I  finished  my 
pipe  before  lying  down  alongside  of  Millett,  it  struck  me 
how  easily  a  single  Turkish  company  might  capture  the 
Russian  general  and  his  staff.  There  was  a  picket  on  the 
actual  summit,  and  where  there  is  a  picket  there  should  be 
at  least  one  sentry.  I  had  the  curiosity  to  saunter  up  to 
the  summit.  The  picket  to  a  man  was  dead  asleep.  As 
I  walked  around  it  I  trod  on  the  sentry.  He  grunted  as 
I  stumbled  over  him,  but  did  not  awake. 

As  we  woke  the  bright  morning  sun  was  shining  on  a 
spectacle  of  striking  picturesqueness  and  illuminating  a 
landscape  of  serene  and  varied  beauty.     Near  us  generals 


Gourkds  Passage  of  the  Balkans  333 

and  staff  officers,  some  rolled  snugly  in  shubas  and  bour- 
kas,  some  in  their  overcoats  only,  lay  in  the  snow  around 
the  fires  which  the  soldiers  had  replenished.  Cossacks 
and  dragoons  were  already  busy  with  their  cooking,  and 
hundreds  of  horses  made  fast  to  the  trees  surrounding  the 
mountain-bivouac  stamped  impatiently  on  the  snow.  Be- 
low us  to  the  southward  as  we  stood  on  the  skyline  spread 
the  wide  plain  of  Sophia,  its  white  surface  broken  only  by 
the  little  dark  spots  which  marked  where  the  villages  were. 
Beyond,  with  the  clouds  hanging  fitfully  on  their  slopes, 
were  the  mountains  of  the  Liintin  range  further  south, 
and  away  in  the  direction  of  Samakova  was  the  huge  moun- 
tainous mass  which  is  crowned  by  the  lofty  peak  of  Vitos. 
Looking  eastward  through  the  tree-trunks  we  could  clearly 
see  the  great  Shandarnik  summit  and  the  line  of  Turkish 
redoubts  and  entrenchments  on  the  lofty  ridge  above 
Kamarli.  That  was  Curiak  down  yonder  at  the  foot  of 
the  short  steep  descent  from  the  summit  on  which  we 
stood  full  2,000  feet  above  it,  and  a  couple  of  miles  nearer 
the  plain  was  Potop  and  beyond  were  Eleznitza  and  Stolnik 
among  the  trees  close  to  the  chaussoe  crossing  the  plain  to 
Sophia  away  yonder  behind  its  redoubts.  As  we  stood 
looking  down  on  the  scene  Gourko  came  up  with  Naglovski 
and  surveyed  the  wide  prospect  with  great  intentness.  You 
see  that  telescope  hanging  there  on  the  wall }  There 
never  was  a  better  glass.  Your  father  made  me  a  present 
of  it  when  I  went  down  to  Giurgevo  with  Skobeleff  before 
the  crossing  of  the  Danube.  Gourko  and  Naglovski  had 
only  binoculars.  These  are  very  convenient  especially  if 
made  of  aluminium,  and  they  are  useful  enough  for  short 
distances ;  but   for   long    range-work  they  cannot  hold  a 


334  Czar  and  Sitliau 

candle  to  the  telescope.  MacGahan  always  swore  by  it, 
and  I  have  been  told  that  Dr.  Russell  the  famous  English 
war-correspondent  never  faltered  in  his  allegiance  to  the 
telescope.  Gourko  had  accosted  us  in  his  usual  courteous 
manner,  and  I  made  bold  to  offer  him  my  telescope.  He 
thanked  me,  focussed  it,  and  brought  it  to  bear  on  Sophia. 
He  broke  out  into  an  exclamation  of  surprise  —  "  What  a 
wonderful  glass!"  he  exclaimed — "I  can  discern  the 
clock-face  on  a  church-spire  in  Sophia  !  " 

Just  then  Ranch  came  up  in  a  better  frame  of  mind  than 
we  had  seen  him  overnight.  He  had  got  the  soldiers  to 
work  before  daybreak ;  now  he  wanted  some  breakfast, 
and  then  he  would  be  glad  if  his  Excellency  would  accom. 
pany  him  down  the  mountain  to  hasten  forward  the  move- 
ments. Gourko  was  good  enough  to  invite  us  to  breakfast, 
a  proffer  which  was  very  opportune.  Before  the  generals 
went  off  tidings  came  in  from  Wilhelminoff  on  our  right 
to  the  effect  that  there  was  no  practicable  track  towards 
Zilava,  and  that  he  would  be  compelled  to  bend  eastward 
towards  Curiak  or  Potop.  There  was  no  intelligence  from 
Dandeville  on  the  left,  and  I  may  as  well  tell  you  that  he 
came  to  great  grief,  having  been  overwhelmed  by  a  terrible 
storm  that  piled  the  snow  up  in  fathomless  drifts  in  which 
part  of  his  artillery  was  buried  and  had  to  be  abandoned. 
So  intense  was  the  cold  that  about  fifty  of  his  men  were 
actually  frozen  to  death  and  more  than  800  were  perma- 
nently disabled  by  being  frost-bitten.  He  had  to  return 
to  Etropol,  but  later  was  able  to  cross  the  range  and  come 
down  into  the  valley  about  Bunovo. 

We  would  fain  have  gone  down  the  descent  into  Curiak, 
but  the  road  thither  from  the  summit  being  within  view 


Gourkos  Passage  of  the  Balkans  335 


from  the  Turkish  positions  was  closed  by  patrols,  and  we 
had  to  possess  our  souls  in  patience  until  nightfall.  All 
about  us  just  behind  the  summit  soldiers  were  gathering 
in  the  bivouacs  in  groups  as  they  came  up.  After  resting 
a  while  they  set  about  cooking  their  rations  of  which  they 
carried  in  their  haversacks  hard  bread  for  six  days ;  beef 
and  mutton  accompanied  them  on  the  hoof  to  last  for  the 
same  time.  Had  we  known  that  the  Caucasian  Cossack 
Brigade  had  crossed  during  the  previous  night  when  we 
were  asleep,  we  should  have  been  in  Curiak  before  now. 
As  it  was  we  had  to  wait  until  twilight  of  the  26th,  when 
in  the  company  of  a  number  of  officers  we  slid  down  the 
deep  descent  from  the  summit  leading  our  horses  over  the 
ice,  and  before  midnight  were  once  again  under  a  roof  in 
the  village  of  Curiak.  Next  morning  the  Preobrazhensky 
regiment  marched  eastward  to  the  ridge  stretching  north 
and  south  between  the  hill  villages  of  Nyagesovo  and 
Hajedanie,  and  entrenched  itself  in  full  view  of  the  little 
plain  of  Tashkessen  and  the  steep  and  rocky  crest  behind 
the  village  of  that  name.  The  Caucasian  brigade  that 
same  day  raided  on  to  the  Sophia  high  road,  cut  the  tele- 
graph wires,  and  after  a  skirmish  captured  a  convoy  of 
two  hundred  waggons  on  its  way  to  Araba-Konak. 

There  was  no  longer  any  object  in  attempting  to  conceal 
the  turning  movement ;  the  moment  had  passed  when  the 
Turks,  if  they  had  any  enterprise,  might  have  interfered 
to  some  purpose  with  Gourko's  dispositions  while  in  the 
throes  of  the  crossing  of  the  summit.  Two  more  days  had 
to  be  spent  in  bringing  over  the  guns,  while  the  infantry 
were  in  bivouac  all  over  the  slopes.  Wilhelminoff 's  detach- 
ment had  to  abandon  its  prescribed  route,  and  came  into 


T,T,6  Czar  and  Sultan 


Curiak  worn  out  with  hunger  and  fatigue.  News  came  in 
that  the  Turks  had  abandoned  their  position  up  at  Luti- 
kova  and  had  gone  through  the  mountains  to  Sophia.  On 
the  morning  of  the  last  day  of  the  old  year  Gourko  was 
ready  to  march  eastward  and  take  in  reverse  the  Turkish 
army.  "  We  may  make  another  Sedan  of  the  business  !  " 
remarked  Naglovski  as  he  rubbed  his  hands —  "We  have 
already  cut  the  Turks  off  from  Sophia ;  if  we  can  get 
before  them  to  Dolni-Kamarli  and  take  a  firm  grip  of  the 
Petricevo  road,  we  may  bag  the  whole  crowd !  "  On  the 
face  of  things  this  did  not  seem  an  extravagant  consum- 
mation ;  only,  as  it  happened,  the  worthy  but  sanguine 
Naglovski  did  not  take  Valentine  Baker  into  account. 

Reconnaissances  had  proved  that  the  village  of  Tash- 
kessen,  behind  which  was  a  high  rocky  ridge  penetrated 
or  rather  surmounted  by  the  high  road,  was  held  by  a 
Turkish  force  estimated  to  be  about  5,000  strong  with  ten 
guns.  Its  actual  strength,  as  we  afterwards  learned,  was 
3,000  men,  of  whom  at  least  1,000  were  of  little  account. 
There  were  only  five  trustworthy  battalions,  with  five  field- 
guns  and  two  weak  squadrons  of  cavalry.  Gourko  was 
clearly  determined  that  he  would  not  fail  for  lack  of  num- 
bers. He  employed  thirty-five  battalions,  two  cavalry  bri- 
gades, and  thirty-six  guns.  Ranch  had  the  left  with  ten 
battalions  and  eight  guns.  Kataley  with  twelve  battalions 
and  twenty  guns  was  in  the  centre  across  the  high  road. 
Kourloff  with  ten  battalions  and  eight  guns  was  on  the 
right,  with  orders  to  make  a  turning  movement  to  his  right 
through  Cekansevo  and  push  his  cavalry  brigades  forward 
to  Makatch  and  Dolni-Kamarli  to  block  there  the  Turkish 
line  of  retreat.    About  1,800  paces  in  front  of  Tashkessen, 


Gourkds  Passage  of  the  Balkans  337 


there  rose  out  of  the  plain  a  long  low  rocky  ridge  lying 
north  and  south  behind  which  Ranch  deployed,  having 
iirst  driven  from  the  ridge  the  handful  of  Turkish  cavalry 
which  had  been  holding  it,  got  up  on  to  it  a  battery,  and 
opened  a  lively  shrapnel-fire.  Climbing  on  to  this  little 
ridge  I  lay  down  between  two  of  Ranch's  guns  and  swept 
with  my  telescope  the  lower  crest  behind  the  village  of 
Tashkessen.  On  this  crest  there  were  three  rocky  hillocks 
north  of  the  road  connected  by  a  rough  entrenchment 
which  also  extended  some  considerable  distance  south  of 
the  road.  The  position  seemed  too  extended  for  the  slen- 
der strength  holding  it,  but  there  were  no  signs  of  waver- 
ing, and  the  few  guns  the  defenders  possessed  were  in 
smart  action  against  Kourloff's  detachment  moving  towards 
Cekansevo.  On  the  central  rocky  hillock  I  could  easily 
discern  through  my  glass  Valentine  Baker  and  Burnaby 
with  several  other  officers  about  them  who  seemed  to  be 
Englishmen.  From  Ranch's  left  I  saw  as  I  looked  back 
the  Preobrazhensky  regiment  moving  out  into  the  plain 
round  the  northern  end  of  the  ridge  opposite  Tashkessen 
on  which  I  lay,  and  wading  slowly  through  the  deep  snow 
in  the  direction  of  the  village  of  Danskioj.  Its  guns  had 
come  into  action  against  the  Turkish  right,  but  the  infantry 
were  not  yet  engaged,  and  indeed  the  battalions  were  ad- 
vancing less  energetically  than  might  have  been  expected 
of  the  crack  regiment  of  the  Russian  Guard.  Meanwhile 
Kourloff's  division  had  reached  and  passed  Cekansevo, 
and  was  now  moving  over  the  plateau  in  the  direction  of 
Makatch,  whence  it  might  either  go  on  to  Dolni-Kamarli 
or  take  in  reverse  the  Turkish  position  on  the  Tashkessen 
ridge.     Baker  had  clearly  been  extending  his  left  to  hinder 


33^  Czar  and  Sultan 

a  procedure  so  ominous  of  danger  to  him,  and  Kourloff's 
flank  as  he  neared  Makatch  was  being  smartly  galled 
by  the  Turkish  rifle-fire.  All  at  once  Kourloff's  whole 
force  halted,  and  changing  front  to  the  left,  took  the 
new  direction  which  would  bring  it  on  Baker's  flank. 
"  Now  he's  done  for !  "  I  muttered  with  a  sinking  of 
the  heart  —  "  Kourloff  will  roll  him  up,  and  the  Preobra- 
zhenskys  there  on  his  right  front  will  strike  in  and  finish 
the  business ! " 

My  heart  was  beating  hard  as  I  lay  on  the  snow  watch- 
ing the  critical  scene.  Presently  Kourloff's  leading  bat- 
talions broke  into  loose  order  and  dashed  forward  with 
shouts  the  clamour  of  which  rang  from  valley  to  hill. 
I  heard  faintly  the  sound  of  Baker's  bugles,  and  then  with 
a  ringing  cry  of  "  Allah  !  "  his  gallant  Turks  dashed  them- 
selves against  the  face  of  the  great  Muscovite  wave  surg- 
ing up  the  rocky  slopes.  The  din  of  the  rifle-fire  was 
deafening.  But  the  Turks  could  not  maintain  their  offen- 
sive against  odds  so  heavy.  They  fought  every  inch  of 
ground,  reluctantly  abandoning  peak  after  peak.  Stimu- 
lated by  the  example  set  by  the  Russian  right  Ranch's 
division  now  abandoned  its  halting  and  hesitating  attitude. 
Its  leading  brigade  advanced  up  the  sloping  spur  near  the 
village  of  Danskioj,  and  struck  at  once  on  flank  and  front 
the  knoll  held  by  the  two  battalions  which  constituted 
Baker's  right.  The  odds  were  immense  —  eight  battalions 
against  two,  but  the  Turks  were  staunch,  they  had  the 
higher  ground,  and  they  fought  from  behind  cover.  The 
Russians  made  a  sturdy  fight  of  it  but  the  Turkish  fire 
was  too  strong  for  them,  and  they  fell  back  around  the 
rocky  roots  of  the  spur.     They  had  suffered  severely,  and 


Gourkos  Passage  of  the  Balkans  339 

some  time  elapsed  before  they  pulled  themselves  together 
again  before  resuming  the  advance. 

By  this  time  it  was  afternoon,  and  the  Turks  were  still 
dauntlessly  holding  their  own.  But  the  position  which 
Baker  had  been  maintaining  since  daylight  was  obviously 
now  seriously  compromised.  Both  his  flanks  were  threat- 
ened, and  Kataley  was  now  moving  forward  along  the 
chaussee  with  the  seeming  object  of  assailing  his  front. 
It  seemed  to  me  that  Baker  had  already  done  a  good 
day's  work,  and  that  the  time  had  now  surely  come  when 
he  was  amply  justified  in  retiring  from  the  unequal 
struggle.  But  it  soon  appeared  that  this  was  not  at  all 
Valentine  Baker's  view  of  the  situation.  It  was  truly 
beautiful,  the  quiet  cool  deliberation  with  which  he  with- 
drew his  little  command  up  on  to  the  main  upper  crest 
of  the  ridge,  into  a  position  which  I  could  easily  discern 
was  infinitely  stronger  than  the  one  which  he  had  previ- 
ously been  holding.  He  had  befooled  the  Russians  to 
some  purpose  in  letting  them  imagine  that  they  were  out- 
flanking him  on  both  right  and  left,  whereas  they  had 
been  doing  this  as  regarded  only  his  initial  position ; 
and  now  they  must  go  right  at  the  front  of  his  new  and 
stronger  position,  or  recommence  from  the  beginning  a 
fresh  series  of  outflanking  movements.  I  could  scarcely 
contain  myself  from  cheering  as  the  skilful  tactics  grad- 
ually dawned  on  me  ;  and  how  I  wished  that  I  had  a 
fellow-Briton  by  my  side  with  whom  to  take  pride  in  the 
brilliant  military  genius  of  our  brave  unfortunate  coun- 
tryman ! 

^'  Sapristi !''  shouted  the  Russian  major  commanding 
the  battery  —  "  Here  is  that  enterprising  countryman  of 


340  Czar  and  Sultau 

yours  coming  down  on  to  the  plain  with  a  regiment 
of  cavalry !  Well,  we  shall  see  how  he  relishes  our 
shrapnel!"  The  major  spoke  true.  Baker  himself  was 
not  leading  the  horsemen,  but  that  their  chief  was  an 
Englishman  I  recognised  at  once  by  his  seat  in  the  saddle. 
"  Oh,  I  see  !  "  said  the  major  —  "  It  is  merely  a  demonstra- 
tion to  cover  your  friend's  retirement  to  the  main  crest. 
Very  neat  dexterous  business  I  call  it.  I  wish  your  Baker 
Pasha  belonged  to  us,  then  one  day  our  cavalry  might 
do  something  that  men  would  talk  about.  Well,  we've 
emptied  a  few  Turkish  saddles ;  and  that  long-legged 
Englishman,  having  arrested  events  for  half  an  hour  or 
so,  is  shouting  *  Threes  about ! '  and  going  up  the  hill 
again.  I  will  make  it  hot  for  him  as  he  goes !  "  And 
sure  enough  the  Russian  major  let  drive  viciously  till  the 
Turkish  squadrons  were  out  of  range. 

At  the  khan  where  the  road  crossed  the  crest  Baker's 
guns  were  in  position  firing  shrapnel  on  the  Russian 
skirmishers  advancing  on  the  Turkish  left  front.  The 
khan  itself,  a  large  building  with  many  windows,  was  full 
of  infantry  who  swept  all  the  approaches  with  their  fire 
from  the  windows.  It  staggered  the  heavy  Russian  col- 
umns and  even  caused  their  skirmishers  to  desist  from 
advancing  —  the  Peabody-Martinis  had  the  advantage  of 
the  Russian  Berdans.  We  heard  heavy  artillery-fire  up 
in  the  mountains  about  the  Shandarnik ;  and  I  asked  the 
Russian  major  what  that  meant  .''  "  Oh !  "  he  replied, 
"  that  is  only  Prince  Oldenburg's  fire  to  keep  the  Turks 
where  they  are  up  yonder,  while  Gourko  is  smashing 
Baker  and  getting  into  position  to  cut  off  the  Turkish 
retreat."     It  seemed  to  me  that  Baker  was  not  being  per- 


Gourkds  Passage  of  the  Balkans  341 

ceptibly  smashed,  but  on  the  contrary  that  he  was  gal- 
lantly holding  his  own.  Kourloff  was  gradually  crowding 
in  on  his  left,  and  the  Preobrazhenskys  were  trying  to 
approach  his  centre  and  right  but  were  catching  it  heavily 
from  Baker's  shrapnel  and  rifle-fire.  The  afternoon  be- 
came hazy  but  there  was  no  actual  fog.  As  the  dusk 
set  in  the  Russians  gathered  themselves  together  for  a 
final  desperate  effort.  They  brought  up  fresh  troops  and 
came  tramping  up  over  the  snow,  in  the  face  of  the 
withering  fire  from  the  rocks  around  the  khan  and  from 
the  khan  itself.  As  the  converging  attack  neared  the 
crest  the  Turks  sprang  to  their  feet  and  rushed  forward 
with  the  bayonet.  Indistinctly  I  saw  through  the  tele- 
scope a  brief  but  wild  melee,  and  then  the  Russians  gave 
back  pursued  by  their  fierce  adversaries.  Baker  had  not 
been  "  smashed,"  and  his  skill  and  resolution  had  thwarted 
Gourko's  intention  to  intercept  the  Turkish  retreat.  I 
afterwards  learned  that  of  the  2,000  men  composing  the 
five  trustworthy  battalions  with  which  Baker  really  made 
his  protracted  and  successful  defence,  800  had  fallen,  a 
loss  of  nearly  one-half.  But  it  was  the  constancy  of  Val- 
entine Baker  and  his  staunch  2,000  which  alone  covered 
and  made  possible  the  retreat  of  the  Turkish  army.  The 
losses  of  the  Russians  amounted  to  1,000,  including  a  gen- 
eral commanding  a  brigade  and  thirty-two  other  officers. 
The  losses  incurred  by  Gourko  in  his  passage  of  the 
Balkans,  in  action  and  because  of  the  cruel  cold,  were 
altogether  something  over  2,000.  At  that  sacrifice  he 
might  have  forced  the  Baba-Konak  Pass,  and  saved  a 
good  deal  of  time. 

The  Russian  troops  bivouacked  where  they  found  them- 


342  Czar  and  Sultan 

selves  when  the  fighting  ended.  We  found  quarters  of 
a  kind  in  the  village  of  Tashkessen,  many  of  the  houses 
in  which  were  filled  with  dead,  sick,  and  wounded.  Soon 
after  daybreak  on  the  morning  of  New  Year's  day  tidings 
came  in  that  the  Turkish  army  was  nowhere  to  be  found. 
The  Russians  had  missed  their  expected  prey,  thanks  to 
the  cool  fortitude  of  Valentine  Baker,  who  held  the  Tash- 
kessen Pass  all  day  long  and  on  until  the  evening  while 
Shakir  Pasha  was  withdrawing  his  troops  from  their  posi- 
tions on  the  Shandarnik  heights.  It  was  the  only  occa- 
sion on  which  I  ever  saw  Gourko's  composure  greatly 
disturbed.  He  threw  himself  on  his  horse  and  galloped 
up  to  the  crest  behind  the  khan,  where  he  drew  rein  and 
looked  down  with  knitted  brows  upon  the  empty  plain  of 
Kamarli  on  which  he  had  expected  to  find  the  Turkish 
army.  All  that  was  to  be  seen  were  a  few  belated  Turk- 
ish stragglers  whom  the  Cossacks  were  chasing  through 
the  deep  snow.  On  the  long  steep  ascent  behind  the 
village  of  Dolni-Kamarli  up  which  wound  the  road  to 
Petricevo,  was  visible  against  the  snow  the  dark  column 
of  Turks  slowly  marching  away  out  of  cannon-range. 
We  counted  some  half-dozen  battalions,  but  the  main  force 
must  have  been  already  well  forward  on  its  retreating 
march  to  Petricevo.  The  advance  of  Kataley's  column 
presently  approached  Dolni-Kamarli,  but  the  Turks  had 
left  there  a  rear  guard  of  a  few  hundred  men  who  main- 
tained a  stout  and  prolonged  defence  from  the  fences  and 
houses  of  the  village ;  and  when  at  length  the  little  band 
abandoned  the  place,  it  gave  further  pause  to  Kataley  by 
throwing  up  some  hasty  entrenchments  on  the  summit 
of  the  hill,  which  were  held  until  the  Russian  guns  com- 


Gourkds  Passage  of  the  Balkans  343 

pelled  an  ultimate  retirement.  Gourko's  dispositions  for 
the  previous  day,  in  spite  of  Baker's  heroic  stand  behind 
Tashkessen,  would  probably  have  afforded  him  the  con- 
summation of  "bagging,"  to  use  Naglovski's  phrase,  at 
least  part  of  the  Turkish  army,  but  for  the  errors  com- 
mitted by  his  own  people.  The  cavalry  division  which  he 
had  ordered  to  take  and  hold  Dolni-Kamarli,  on  approach- 
ing that  village  had  fallen  back  before  a  few  shots  and 
then  had  remained  doing  absolutely  nothing  during  the 
day ;  and  Kourloff  had  been  enticed  into  taking  part  in 
the  fighting,  thus  leaving  open  to  the  Turks  a  line  of 
retreat  through  the  unoccupied  Dolni-Kamarli. 

Well,  there  was  no  help  for  the  Russian  misadventure, 
in  which  I  own  I  secretly  gloried.  Gourko  ordered  a 
detachment  of  cavalry  to  move  up  the  chaussee  towards 
the  Baba-Konak  Pass,  where  it  met  the  head  of  Kriidener's 
corps  marching  down  from  the  northward.  On  the  further 
side  of  the  Kamarli  plain  the  Red  Crescent  flag  was  flying 
from  a  large  marquee  close  to  the  village  of  Strigli.  I 
rode  across  and  found  in  the  village  among  about  1,000 
Turkish  wounded  several  English  surgeons  hard  at  work, 
along  with  Mr.  Bell,  the  artist-correspondent  of  the  Illus- 
trated London  Neivs.  The  senior  surgeon  was  Dr.  Leslie, 
who  went  to  the  general  to  ask  for  a  temporary  guard,  as 
the  Turks  had  deserted  the  village  and  the  Russians  had 
not  occupied  it.  The  Turkish  surgeons  had  all  gone  with 
the  troops.  I  also  found  in  Strigli  Colonel  Baker  of  the 
Turkish  Gendarmerie,  who  was  too  ill  of  dysentery  to  be 
able  to  leave  along  with  the  army.  The  surgeons  were 
good  enough  to  ask  me  to  spend  the  night  with  them,  an 
invitation  which  I  was  only  too   glad  to  accept,  for   my 


344  Czar  and  Sultan 

new  friends  seemed  to  be  living  in  clover.  I  rode  back  to 
where  General  Gourko  still  was  at  the  cross-roads,  just  in 
time,  as  Krlidener's  people  were  seen  descending  the  pass, 
to  hear  him  address  the  staff  with  great  earnestness  in  the 
words  :  "  Now,  gentlemen,  we  can  say  in  all  conscience 
that  we  have  completely  accomplished  the  crossing  of  the 
Balkans!"  There  was  a  ripple  of  cheering  as  the  chief 
shook  hands  heartily  with  all  around  him,  and  then  served 
us  out  with  the  little  bits  of  chocolate  which  seemed  to  be 
the  only  penchant  of  this  iron  and  stoical  man. 

We  followed  the  general  up  the  road  past  Araba-Konak 
to  pay  a  visit  to  the  abandoned  positions  on  the  Shandarnik 
ridge.  The  Turkish  redoubts  were  admirably  constructed 
and  they  were  as  neat  and  trim  as  a  well-kept  garden. 
The  Turks  had  left  seven  fine  Krupp  guns,  on  account, 
the  Russian  officers  held,  of  the  exposure  to  which  they 
would  have  been  subjected  in  being  dragged  under  fire 
along  the  whole  length  of  the  position,  which  had  no 
other  line  of  retreat  than  the  high  road.  Rather  than 
leave  them  to  the  enemy,  it  struck  me  that  they  might 
have  been  thrown  over  the  steep  declivity  in  rear  of 
the  position,  where  probably  they  would  have  remained 
undetected  in  the  brushwood  at  the  foot.  It  was  a  de- 
lightful evening  I  spent  with  the  English  surgeons  in  their 
snug  common-room  in  the  best  house  in  Strigli.  For  the 
first  time  since  leaving  Todleben's  table  at  Tutchenitza' 
did  I  partake  of  what  I  believe  has  now  come  to  be  called 
a  "square  meal."  My  friends  were  gentlemen  of  educa- 
tion and  knowledge  of  the  world  far  beyond  what  I  could 
aspire  to,  and  I  felt  it  was  fitting  that  I  should  be  more  of 
a  listener  than  a  talker.     But  they  were  very  hungry  for 


Gourkds  Passage  of  the  Balkans  345 

information  about  the  events  of  the  war  on  the  Russian 
side,  and  I  had  to  describe  the  fighting  around  Plevna  and 
its  ultimate  fall.  They  were  very  curious  to  know  what 
had  happened  in  the  case  of  the  two  young  dressers  (it 
seems  they  were  not  surgeons)  Vachell  and  Douglas  who 
had  fallen  into  the  Russian  hands  at  Telis.  I  was  able  to 
inform  them  that  the  Grand  Duke  Nicholas  had  been  very 
courteous  to  them  and  that  they  had  not  been  long  in  his 
headquarter  before  he  gave  them  their  liberty  and,  I  had 
heard,  had  furnished  them  with  funds  to  take  them  home. 
This  pleased  them  greatly,  as  bearing  probably  on  their 
own  future.  In  reply  to  Colonel  Baker  I  had  to  state  that 
Colonel  Coope  had  been  treated  as  a  Turkish  officer  and 
that  I  understood  he  had  been  sent  to  Russia  as  a  prisoner 
of  war.  "  Bad  look-out  for  me !  "  remarked  the  colonel 
dolefully.  Sure  enough,  when  next  day  Prince  Oldenburg 
came  down  from  the  mountain-tops  into  Strigli,  he  sent  an 
officer  of  his  staff  to  inform  Colonel  Baker  that  he  was  a 
prisoner  of  war  and  to  demand  his  parole.  What  finally 
befell  this  officer  I  never  heard,  but  what  happend  to  the 
Strigli  surgeons  I  became  aware  of  later  to  my  great 
indignation.  I  recollect  that  just  as  I  was  leaving  Strigli 
on  the  forenoon  of  January  2nd,  there  arrived  Prince 
Tzeretleff  and  Mr.  Millett,  who  had  been  sent  back  to 
ascertain  the  truth  or  the  reverse  of  a  statement  that 
Baker  Pasha  was  lying  wounded  and  a  prisoner  here  at 
Strigli.  The  misconception  was  soon  cleared  up,  and  after 
a  charming  luncheon  with  the  cheery  and  hospitable  sur- 
geons we  three  started  off  for  Gorni-Bugaroff,  where  the 
headquarters  were  for  the  night.  We  had  a  long  ride 
before  us,  for  Gorni-Bugaroff  was  more  than  half-way  to 


346  Czar  and  Sultan 

Sophia  and  the  road  was  too  slippery  to  allow  us  to  make 
any  pace.  As  we  ncared  Bugaroff  after  nightfall  the 
road  and  the  numerous  dead  bodies  lying  across  it  and  in 
the  ditches  on  either  side  were  lit  up  by  the  glare  from 
the  huge  bivouac-fires.  We  rode  into  the  village  to  meet 
a  line  of  soldiers  carrying  out  a  number  of  corpses  for 
interment  in  the  fields  hard  by.  I  had  not  heard  of  any 
fighting  in  this  direction,  but  Prince  Tzeretleff  informed 
me  that  on  the  previous  day  Wilhelminoff's  column,  some 
3,500  strong,  a  little  way  beyond  Bugaroff  had  defeated 
with  heavy  loss  a  sortie  from  Sophia  made  by  5,000  Turks. 
The  latter  were  some  time  in  sight  as  they  approached 
and  the  Russians  had  time  to  throw  up  a  line  of  shelter- 
trenches.  Lying  down  in  those  they  waited  patiently 
until  the  Turks  were  within  a  hundred  yards,  when  they 
poured  in  steady  volleys  and  then  sprang  up  and  charged 
with  the  bayonet.  The  Turks,  staggered  by  the  fierceness 
and  suddenness  of  this  attack,  broke  and  ran,  leaving  800 
of  their  number  dead  on  the  ground  and  carrying  off 
twice  as  many  wounded.  Wilhelminoff's  entire  loss  was 
only  250  men.  Before  tumbling  into  a  cellar  half  full  of 
hay  which  we  were  glad  to  occupy  as  a  bedroom,  we 
heard  that  Kataley's  Guard  division  along  with  Dandeville's 
detachment  from  Bunovo  was  to  continue  the  pursuit  of 
the  fugitive  Turkish  army  by  the  Petricevo  road,  and  two 
Guard  cavalry  brigades  were  to  move  by  another  road  in 
the  hope  of  taking  it  in  flank.  A  day  or  two  later  came 
the  news  that  General  Kataley  and  one  of  his  brigade 
commanders  had  been  killed  in  a  skirmish  with  some 
Stragglers  of  the  Turkish  rear  guard. 


CHAPTER   XIV 

FROM    SOPHIA    TO    ADKIANOPLE 

NEXT  morning  (January  3rd)  we  accompanied  a  recon- 
naissance made  by  General  Gourko  towards  the 
northern  vicinity  of  Sophia,  in  the  course  of  which  we 
were  within  a  few  hundred  yards  of  its  outskirts.  No 
opposition  was  visible  here ;  but  the  earthworks  on  the 
slope  eastward  of  the  town  were  seen  to  be  full  of  men, 
the  fortifications  were  manned,  and  there  were  no  signs 
whatever  of  impending  evacuation.  Gourko  did  not  at  all 
like  the  attitude  of  the  Turks,  and  Naglovski  muttered 
ominously  that  "  Sophia  might  become  another  Plevna." 
It  was  believed  that  the  garrison  of  the  place  was  about 
15,000  men  with  about  twenty  guns,  and  the  redoubts  and 
entrenchments  seemed  very  strong.  "  Well,"  said  Gourko, 
"  the  longer  we  look  at  it  the  worse  we  shall  like  it !  "  He 
determined  to  attack  on  the  5th,  and  made  his  dispositions 
on  the  spot.  Prince  Oldenburg's  command  of  eight  bat- 
talions and  sixteen  guns  was  ordered  up ;  Wilhelminoff 
with  the  same  strength  was  to  operate  from  the  north  ; 
and  Ranch  with  twenty  battalions  and  forty-two  guns  was 
to  make  the  main  attack  along  the  Plevna-Sophia  high 
road.  Prince  Tzeretleff  was  very  glum  as  we  rode  back 
to  quarters.  "The  place,"  he  remarked,  "will  cost  us 
5,000  men  even  if  the  attack  succeed,  and  that  seems  to 
me  doubtful  enough." 

347 


348  Czar  and  Sultan 


For  once  we  were  in  comfortable  quarters,  in  a  large 
farm-house  belonging  to  a  wealthy  Turk,  near  the  covered 
bridge  across  the  Isker  about  five  miles  short  of  Sophia. 
We  lived  at  rack  and  manger  on  the  Turk's  livestock;  but 
the  thirty-six  hours  of  suspense  which  we  reckoned  on 
rather  damped  our  spirits.  It  was  near  noon  of  the  4th 
when  a  Cossack  brought  the  welcome  news  that  the  Turk- 
ish troops  had  evacuated  Sophia  during  the  night,  and 
that  Ranch's  advance  guard  had  been  in  the  town  for 
the  last  two  hours.  We  mounted  and  rode  rapidly  past 
the  main  column  tramping  on  steadily  with  uncased  ban- 
ners, marching  to  the  ringing  songs  of  the  platoons  head- 
ing each  battalion.  Gourko  sat  on  horseback  close  to  the 
entrance  of  the  town,  sternly  warning  the  troops  as  they 
passed  him  that  plundering  would  be  punished  with  the 
utmost  severity.  They  fully  understood  when  they  saw 
the  uplifted  forefinger  and  heard  the  curt  ringing  tones, 
that  their  general  was  a  man  of  his  word  and  that  maraud- 
ers would  have  from  him  a  short  shrift.  The  inhabi- 
tants of  Sophia  did  not  prepossess  us  in  their  favour. 
They  were  the  reverse  of  enthusiastic,  and  seemed  lan- 
guidly curious  rather  than  excited  by  what  the  Russians 
called  their  "  deliverance."  Sophia  may  be  said  to  have 
been  one  great  hospital,  crowded  with  the  helpless 
wounded  whom  Osman  Pasha  had  sent  away  from  Plevna 
in  the  early  weeks  of  October.  The  mortality  among 
them  had  been  awful,  both  during  the  long  slow  rough 
journey  and  after  their  arrival  in  Sophia.  Such  of  them 
as  could  walk  or  even  crawl  had  been  ordered  to  accom- 
pany the  departing  Turkish  troops,  who  had  been  march- 
ing away  by  the   southern  road  to  Dubnitza  during  the 


From  Sophia  to  Adriaiiople  349 


whole  of  the  previous  night.  It  was  told  us  that  some 
6,000  of  those  hapless  wounded  had  limped  away  with  the 
soldiers,  of  whom  a  terrible  percentage  were  sure  to  die  of 
cold  and  hunger  within  the  next  few  days.  The  hospitals 
had  been  fairly  well  managed,  but  when  the  debacle  set  in 
the  Bulgarian  attendants  had  robbed  the  patients  who  were 
too  ill  to  move,  and  then  had  deserted  in  a  body.  There 
was  a  wretched  interval  of  three  days  between  the  time  of 
the  departure  of  the  Turks  and  the  first  issue  of  food  to 
the  hospitals  by  the  Russians.  This  was  sheer  carelessness, 
for  Sophia  was  full  of  available  supplies,  only  it  was  made 
the  business  of  nobody  to  distribute  them,  and  meanwhile 
the  unfortunate  patients  in  very  many  instances  died  of 
hunger.  It  was  far  different  in  the  hospitals  which  were 
in  English  hands  —  those  of  Lady  Strangford,  the  Red 
Crescent  Society,  and  the  surgeons  and  administrators  of 
the  Stafford  House  organisation.  The  personnel  of  all 
those  establishments  remained  loyally  in  execution  of  their 
duties,  and  saved  many  lives.  After  the  general  evacua- 
tion about  a  thousand  wounded  remained  in  Sophia  too  ill 
to  be  moved,  and  those  who  survived  the  interval  of  utter 
neglect  were  well  cared  for  by  the  surgeons  of  various 
nationalities.  Lady  Strangford  was  treated  with  the  ut- 
most consideration,  and  transport  was  placed  at  her  dis- 
posal should  she  have  chosen  to  follow  the  Turkish  retreat ; 
but  she  preferred  to  carry  out  her  task  of  humanity  in 
Sophia,  where  also  the  surgeons  of  the  Stafford  House 
organisation  and  of  the  Red  Crescent  elected  to  remain. 

I  believe  that  Sophia  is  now  quite  a  handsome  city. 
When  you  wrote  to  me  from  it  during  your  recent  travels, 
you  mentioned  that  you  were  living  in  a  comfortable  hotel, 


350  Czar  and  Sultan 


that  boulevards  were  being  built,  a  theatre  was  open,  and 
in  short,  that  Sophia  was  a  stirring  place  —  almost,  I 
remember  you  said,  to  be  named  alongside  of  Bucharest. 
The  Sophia  of  1878  was  a  shabby  and  dilapidated  Turkish 
town,  swarming  with  Jews,  its  Bulgarian  population  more 
objectionable  even  than  the  Bulgarians  of  the  Danube 
provinces.  They  disliked  the  Russians,  and  the  Russians 
loathed  them.  There  was  nothing  in  common  between 
the  deliverers  and  the  delivered,  except  some  similarity  in 
language  and  religion.  We  stayed  in  Sophia  for  five  days 
and  were  dead  sick  of  the  place.  The  Turks  in  leaving 
had  done  Gourko  a  good  turn ;  they  had  abandoned  in 
Sophia  about  eight  million  rations  of  flour,  rice,  sugar, 
coffee,  salt,  etc.,  and  there  was  abundance  of  sheep  and 
cattle  in  the  Sophia  plain.  A  supply-train  loaded  with 
biscuit  was  brought  over  the  mountains  from  Orkanie, 
and  the  troojos  were  served  out  with  six  days'  rations  of 
"hard  tack." 

I  had  known  from  General  Todleben  before  I  left 
Plevna  that  Gourko's  instructions  after  reaching  Sophia 
were  that  he  should  advance  from  that  place  by  the  old 
Roman  road  through  Philippopolis  to  Adrianople,  driv- 
ing the  Turks  before  him  as  he  marched.  But  I  also 
learned  from  Prince  Tzeretleff  that  the  general  was  a  good 
deal  in  the  dark  as  to  the  probable  positions  of  the  enemy. 
He  knew  that  in  crossing  the  Balkans  he  had  driven 
Shakir  Pasha's  army  of  about  20,000  men  away  over  the 
Little  Balkans  through  Petricevo  and  probably  to  Otlukioj, 
and  that  the  15,000  men  who  had  constituted  the  garrison 
of  Sophia  had  taken  the  circuitous  route  by  Dubnitza 
round  the  huge  mountain  mass  of  Rilo  towards  Samakovo. 


Fro7n  Sophia  to  Adrianople  351 

But  there  had  also  to  be  reckoned  with  the  army  of 
Suleiman  which  had  been  withdrawn  from  the  Quadri- 
lateral, and  was  now  marching  up  from  Philippopolis 
towards  Trajan's  Gate  by  the  Roman  road.  Its  strength 
was  reported  to  be  over  20,000  men.  Gourko,  leaving  a 
brigade  in  Sophia,  divided  his  marching  army  into  four 
detachments.  On  the  left  Kriidener  with  24  battalions, 
16  squadrons  and  58  guns  was  already  following  Shakir 
by  Petricevo  towards  Otlukioj.  This  force  constituted 
the  Russian  left.  Gourko  himself  left  Sophia  on  the 
morning  of  the  9th  with  the  centre  (main)  column  com- 
manded by  Count  Schouvaloff,  consisting  of  30  battalions, 
12  squadrons  and  76  guns,  all  of  the  Guard.  This  body 
was  to  follow  the  Roman  road,  in  the  expectation  of  find- 
ing and  beating  Suleiman  in  the  Trajan  Gate  position. 
Wilhelminoff  had  left  Sophia  on  the  7th,  marching 
towards  Samakovo  by  the  direct  road,  with  orders  to 
cut  off  the  retreat  of  the  Sophia  garrison  and  then 
operate  against  Suleiman's  flank  and  rear  at  the  Trajan 
Pass.  Wilhelminoff  had  only  a  brigade  of  infantry, 
another  of  Caucasian  Cossacks,  and  12  guns.  Schilder- 
Schuldner  with  a  small  force  was  to  descend  the  valley 
of  the  Topolnica  between  Otlukioj  and  Trajan's  Gate.  I 
have  bothered  you  with  these  details  which  you  may 
follow  out  at  your  leisure  on  the  map,  that  you  may  the 
better  understand  Gourko's  comprehensive  strategy. 

During  the  march  of  the  loth  the  tidings  reached  us 
that  Radetski's  army  had  crossed  the  Schipka  Pass,  and 
that  the  whole  of  Vessil  Pasha's  Turkish  army  had  sur- 
rendered to  Skobeleff  on  the  previous  day.  You  should 
have  heard  the  cheering  as  the  good  news  ran  along  the 


352  Czar  and  Siiltan 


column,  betokening  for  the  home-sick  soldiers  the  begin- 
ning of  the  end.  A  snow-storm  had  set  in,  the  road  was 
a  sheet  of  ice  and  the  cold  was  bitter  and  cutting  ;  but  the 
men,  elated  by  the  intelligence  of  the  day,  made  Hght  of  a 
bivouac  in  the  snow  and  sang  round  their  fires  till  the 
night  was  far  advanced.  Next  day  at  Ichtiman  we  heard 
that  the  whole  of  the  Turkish  forces  which  had  been  in 
Gourko's  front  were  on  the  run,  having  abandoned  all  their 
positions  ;  and  the  same  afternoon  there  presented  himself 
an  aide-de-camp  of  Suleiman  with  a  message  that  "  the 
war  was  over,"  orders  having  been  received  from  the 
Minister  of  War  at  Constantinople  to  cease  hostilities,  as 
an  armistice  had  been  arranged  with  the  Russian  Com- 
mander-in-Chief. This  was  a  bit  of  bluff  on  Suleiman's 
part  in  the  hope  of  delaying  the  Russian  advance,  but 
Gourko  was  not  to  be  deceived  by  it ;  and  presently  tele- 
grams from  the  Grand  Duke  Nicholas  arrived  stating  that 
negotiations  merely  were  in  progress,  and  ordering  that 
active  operations  were  to  be  vigorously  prosecuted.  Gen- 
eral Wilhelminoff,  who  was  frequently  unfortunate,  alone 
fell  into  the  trap  and  thereby  lost  twenty-four  hours,  of 
which  the  astute  Osman  Noury  Pasha,  commanding  the 
Turkish  force  which  had  garrisoned  Sophia,  skilfully 
availed  himself.  The  rest  of  the  Turkish  forces  had  gone 
and  left  him  to  his  own  resources,  but  Osman  Noury  was 
a  gallant  soldier  and  a  man  of  no  little  resource.  But  for 
the  difficulties  which  Schouvaloff's  people  experienced  in 
getting  their  artillery  up  and  then  down  the  ice-bound 
road  over  the  lofty  pass  of  Trajan's  Gate,  Osman  and  his 
detachment  of  some  15,000  men  would  have  been  cut  off. 
As  it  was,  the  Russians  had  the  chagrin  of  watching  from 


From  Sophia  to  Adrianople  353 

Vejtrenova  his  rear  guard  disappear  on  its  march  to 
Tatar-Bazardjik.  He  had  wisely  crossed  from  the  left  to 
the  right  bank  of  the  Maritza,  leaving  to  us  the  high  road 
but  moving  with  great  celerity  along  the  tracks  on  the 
south  bank.  On  the  13th  we  pushed  on  with  all  possible 
vigour  to  within  a  few  miles  of  Tatar-Bazardjik,  and  that 
afternoon  looked  down  into  the  great  plain  of  Philip- 
popolis.  As  the  heads  of  the  Russian  columns  converging 
simultaneously  on  Tatar-Bazardjik,  by  the  Ichtiman  and 
Otlukioj  roads,  moved  forward  threateningly,  two  Turkish 
divisions  formed  line  of  battle  behind  the  Topolnica  near 
its  confluence  with  the  Maritza,  but  no  serious  collision 
occurred,  and  Osman  Noury's  column  marching  towards 
the  town  on  the  south  bank  was  not  molested  by  the 
Russians. 

During  the  night  between  the  14th  and  15th,  the  whole 
of  Suleiman's  army  which  had  completed  its  concentration 
by  the  arrival  from  Samakova  of  Osman  Noury's  detach- 
ment and  was  now  40,000  strong  or  thereabouts,  evac- 
uated Tatar-Bazardjik  having  burned  the  bridge  across 
the  Maritza  between  the  two  sections  of  the  town,  and 
marched  towards  Philippopolis.  The  line  of  route  of  both 
armies  was  parallel,  the  Turkish  on  the  right  bank,  the 
Russian  on  the  left.  The  former  army  was  hurrying  on 
to  reach  Philippopolis,  where  it  was  to  find  a  reinforce- 
ment of  twenty-six  battalions  which  would  raise  Sulei- 
man's strength  to  nearly  55,000  men.  The  Russian  infan- 
try columns  were  preceded  by  the  cavalry  which  was  sent 
forward  to  occupy  Philippopolis  in  the  expectation  of  find- 
ing that  city  unoccupied  by  Turkish  forces,  but  was  dis- 
appointed in    that  hope.     Late  in  the  afternoon,  after  a 


354  Czar  and  Sultan 

long  march,  Schouvaloff' s  advance  forded  the  Maritza  and 
occupied  the  village  of  Adakioj  on  the  south  bank.  Sulei- 
man's army  spent  the  night  in  Kadikioj,  a  village  three 
miles  further  east  on  the  same  side  of  the  river.  Fuad 
Pasha  had  skilfully  conducted  the  Turkish  retreat  from 
Tatar-Bazardjik,  and  in  the  morning  his  division,  about 
12,000  strong,  was  found  in  position  behind  a  deep  afflu- 
ent of  the  Maritza  along  a  front  that  seemed  too  much 
extended.  The  fighting  lasted  most  of  the  day,  but  had 
little  earnestness ;  the  Russians  aiming  at  delaying  the 
Turkish  retreat,  Fuad's  people  quite  content  to  be  held 
where  they  were  while  the  retreat  of  the  main  force  was 
being  prepared.  During  the  day  Suleiman  skulked  out  of 
Philippopolis  with  some  20,000  men,  marched  to  Stani- 
maka,  and  left  the  rest  of  his  army  to  its  fate.  Fuad  and 
Shakir  fought  out  the  issue  with  a  valiant  desperation  which 
commanded  the  admiration  of  their  enemies.  Gourko  made 
the  most  of  his  superior  numbers  ;  I  counted  that  in  the 
course  of  the  day  he  employed  forty-six  battalions  :  taking 
a  battalion  at  this  stage  of  the  campaign  at  600  men,  he 
was  using  27,600  men  against  Fuad's  15,000,  Schouvaloff's 
estimate  of  that  Pasha's  strength.  The  Russian  losses  on 
that  day  amounted  to  about  300.  Fuad's  were  probably 
about  the  same,  and  as  he  had  to  abandon  the  villages  on 
which  both  his  flanks  rested,  he  fell  back  into  a  position 
at  the  base  of  the  mountains  in  front  of  the  village  of 
Demendere. 

Wilhelminoff  had  come  up  during  the  night,  and  on  the 
morning  of  the  i6th  he  followed  Fuad  along  the  base  of 
the  mountain.  Schouvaloff  deployed  in  Fuad's  front,  and 
Schilder-Schuldner  was  to    have  closed    on    the    Turkish 


From  Sophia  to  Adr.ianople  355 

right  flank ;  but  that  supine  person,  one  of  the  Czar's 
many  "  bad  bargains,"  halted  in  a  village  on  his  march  on 
the  pretext  that  his  troops  were  fatigued.  Gourko  must 
have  wished  that  his  commission  gave  him  the  right  to 
shoot  imbeciles  like  Schilder-Schuldner,  to  be  commanded 
by  whom  was  an  insult  to  good  soldiers.  Fuad  in  the 
afternoon  made  a  savage  attack  on  Wilhelminoff's  column, 
which  you  will  remember  had  so  fiercely  repulsed  the 
Turkish  onslaught  at  Gorni-Bugaroff  on  January  ist. 
His  troops  repeated  now  the  tactics  which  they  had  found 
so  successful  then,  lying  down  behind  a  rocky  ridge  until 
the  Turkish  charge  was  within  100  yards  of  their  front, 
and  then  meeting  and  crushing  it  with  steadily-aimed 
volleys.  This  onslaught  cost  the  Turks  about  600  men, 
and  Wilhelminoff's  loss  did  not  amount  to  sixty. 

Schilder-Schuldner's  torpidity  had  allowed  Fuad  to  move 
nearer  to  his  line  of  retreat  by  the  Stanimaka  road  on  the 
night  between  the  i6th  and  17th.  On  the  morning  of  the 
latter  day  his  left  flank,  thrown  back  to  oppose  Wilhel- 
minoff,  was  found  to  be  close  to  the  village  of  Markovo. 
His  front  rested  on  the  village  of  Tchiflick,  with  Schou- 
valoff  and  the  crack  regiments  of  the  Russian  Guard 
directly  opposite  to  him.  His  right  was  pivoted  on  the 
village  of  Belesnitza,  beyond  which  further  to  the  right 
was  the  division  of  Shakir  Pasha,  who  had  come  to  give 
the  hand  to  his  gallant  comrade.  Shakir  found  opposed 
to  him  in  his  front  and  on  his  right  flank  the  3rd  Division 
of  the  Guard  which  Dandeville  had  been  commanding 
since  the  death  of  General  Kataley.  After  two  days' 
fighting  Gourko  had  become  impatient  to  end  the  busi- 
ness, and  since  the  Philippopolis  bridge  had  been  burned 


356  Czar  and  Stiltan 

by  the  Turks  he  had  sent  Dandeville  down  stream  several 
miles  to  a  ford,  where  that  commander's  division  was 
carried  over  on  the  horses  of  one  of  the  Guard  cavalry 
brigades.  In  the  late  afternoon  of  the  i6th  the  leading 
brigade  of  the  division  advanced  to  the  attack  of  the 
village  of  Karagach,  which  was  found  occupied  by  a  part 
of  Suleiman's  rear  guard.  This  village  was  at  the  moun- 
tain-foot, not  far  from  the  Stanimaka  road.  It  was  carried 
by  the  Russian  brigade  with  rather  a  smart  loss,  and  the 
Turks  lost  there  18  guns.  Next  morning  Dandeville  moved 
up  into  the  left  of  the  Russian  line  facing  and  flanking  on 
its  right  the  Turkish  division  commanded  by  Shakir  Pasha, 
and  took  part  in  the  long  and  bitter  fighting  of  the  day. 
The  offensive  was  with  the  Turks.  In  the  morning  Shakir 
made  a  furious  effort  to  hurl  back  Dandeville's  division 
and  so  open  his  way  to  the  Stanimaka  road  ;  but  the  Rus- 
sian Guardsmen  stoutly  repulsed  him,  and  becoming  the 
assailants  in  their  turn  seized  and  held  a  number  of  his 
guns.  In  the  afternoon  Schilder-Schuldner  struck  Fuad's 
front  at  Tchiflick  at  the  same  time  that  Wilhelminoff 
rolled  up  his  left.  Fuad  had  fought  a  long  and  stubborn 
fight  and  Shakir  was  worthy  of  his  comrade.  Dandeville's 
people  told  of  a  Turkish  colonel  who  hacked  his  way  into 
the  thick  of  the  fighting  and  struck  down  seventeen  Rus- 
sians with  sword  and  revolver  before  a  final  bayonet-thrust 
did  for  him.  The  Turks  retreated  sullenly  from  terrace  to 
terrace  up  the  mountain-side,  still  striking  viciously  back 
at  their  pursuers,  till  at  last,  after  a  heroic  but  hopeless 
resistance,  the  disorganised,  exhausted,  famished,  half- 
frozen  remnants  of  the  two  divisions  broke  into  groups, 
and  under  cover  of  darkness  groped  their  way  up  into  the 


From  Sophia  lo  Adrianoplc  357 


Rhodope  mountains,  to  the  road  by  which  the  recreant 
Suleiman  was  heading  for  the  yEgean.  His  army  had 
been  all  but  shattered.  It  had  lost  5,000  men  in  battle, 
the  Russians  held  of  it  2,000  prisoners,  all  its  guns  (i  14  in 
number,  of  which  96  had  been  captured  in  open  fight),  its 
baggage,  ammunition,  and  supplies.  The  losses  of  the 
Russians  did  not  reach  a  total  of  1,300. 

In  Philippopolis  we  were  restored  to  comparative  civ- 
ilisation. I  once  again  was  really  warm,  in  the  bright 
and  comfortable  room  in  which  we  installed  ourselves. 
I  slept  on  a  spring  mattress,  and  nestled  in  an  easy- 
chair  with  a  sense  of  languid  luxury  which  I  cannot  de- 
scribe to  you.  The  Philippopolis  bazaar  had  been  burned 
down,  but  there  were  excellent  shops,  and  the  English 
consul  was  kind  enough  to  introduce  me  to  a  club  where 
I  found  a  file  of  TJie  Times  and  read  up  about  six  months 
of  the  world's  doings. 

That  was  a  ghastly  march  from  Philippopolis  to  Adrian- 
oplc on  which  we  set  out  on  January  23rd.  It  had  been 
a  subject  of  curiosity  with  us  all  the  way  from  Plevna 
what  had  become  of  the  Turkish  population  in  the 
Balkans  and  in  Roumelia.  Before  reaching  Philippopolis 
we  passed  no  fugitives ;  there  was  not  a  Turk  in  Sophia, 
and  the  whole  region  we  had  traversed  had  been  Chris- 
tian of  a  sort.  Scarcely  had  we  left  the  outskirts  of 
Philippopolis  when  the  dread  solution  to  our  oft-discussed 
problem  presented  itself  in  all  the  horror  of  death,  blood, 
and  misery  unspeakable.  Our  first  day's  ride  was  full 
thirty  miles  long,  and  not  a  kilometre  of  it  was  there 
that  did  not  lie  among  corpses,  dead  animals,  broken 
arabas,  piles  of  rags  and  stray  tatters  of  cast-off  clothing. 


35^  Czar  and  Sultan 

The  two  antagonistic  races,  Turk  and  Bulgarian,  had 
found  here  an  arena  wherein  to  work  off  the  blood-feuds 
of  generations.  The  vendettas  had  been  intensely  fierce. 
There  lay  side  by  side  the  bodies  of  Bulgarian  peasants 
with  gaping  wounds,  often  abominably  mutilated ;  and 
side  by  side  with  those,  corpses  of  dignified  old  Turks, 
their  white  beards  clotted  with  blood,  their  hands  closed 
on  their  bare  breasts.  Between  the  races  there  evidently 
had  been  war  to  the  knife :  the  men  had  died  violent 
deaths ;  but  it  had  been  cold  and  privation  which  ac- 
counted for  the  dead  women  and  children  who  had  been 
frozen  to  death,  and  now  lay  in  the  snow  as  if  still  alive. 
From  the  muddy  water  of  the  ditches  tiny  hands  and 
feet  were  visible,  and  baby-faces  looked  out  from  the 
snow  that  half  covered  them.  We  rode  by  the  inter- 
minable procession  of  miserable  arabas  full  of  human 
beings  and  household  effects,  dragged  by  gaunt  oxen. 
Women  and  children  rode  alongside  on  asses,  and  behind 
stretched  the  long  miles  of  stragglers,  wretched,  famine- 
stricken,  utterly  worn  out ;  grandfathers  and  old  crones  hob- 
bling wearily,  mothers  with  infants  at  the  parched  breasts 
—  all  this  after  months  of  a  fugitive  life,  constant  exposure, 
never-ceasing  dread  of  the  hated  Bulgarians.  I  watched  a 
mother  slowly  leading  a  miserable  sick  child  which  lagged 
continually.  Both  were  half  naked,  and  both  were  ema- 
ciated to  the  last  degree.  The  last  vehicle  of  the  araba  train 
was  nearly  out  of  sight.  The  mother  tried  to  urge  on  the 
child,  fast  losing  patience  as  the  dusk  began  to  fall. 
With  a  sob  and  a  gasp  she  caught  the  child  to  her  breast, 
then  threw  it  from  her  into  the  snow  on  the  roadside,  and 
hurried  on  without  daring  to  glance  over  her  shoulders. 


From  Sophia  to  Adrianople  359 


We  spent  the  night  in  a  miserable  village  which  had 
been  pillaged  to  the  very  bone  by  three  successive  relays 
of  marauders  —  only  the  day  before  the  Russian  cavalry 
had  eaten  the  sordid  place  bare.  When  we  were  leaving 
the  next  morning,  the  village  street  was  blocked  by  a 
train  of  Turkish  refugees  which  the  resident  Bulgarians 
were  systematically  looting.  In  the  village  of  Haskioj 
there  lay  bodies  of  Turkish  soldiers  who  had  been  stoned 
to  death  by  the  Bulgarians,  and  whose  corpses  were  half 
buried  under  the  stones  and  bricks  with  which  they  had 
been  killed.  Things  were  worse  beyond  Haskioj.  The 
country  was  one  great  abandoned  bivouac,  littered  with 
all  manner  of  household  effects.  We  rode  trampling  in 
the  snow-mire  over  carpets,  bedding  and  bundles.  Then 
we  saw  before  us  in  the  distance  a  vast  park  of  closely- 
packed  arabas  stretching  far  away  over  the  fields  and 
slopes  on  both  sides  of  the  road.  I  believe  that  there 
could  not  have  been  fewer  in  the  mass  than  15,000 
arabas,  the  oxen  of  which  still  remained  in  the  yokes. 
There  had  been  a  recent  skirmish  in  which  two  or  three 
Russians  had  been  killed  and  several  Turkish  soldiers. 
But  the  inhabitants  of  this  bivouac  —  there  must  have 
been  many  thousands  of  them  —  had  all  but  utterly  dis- 
appeared. Bulgarian  plunderers  swarmed  through  the 
vast  laager,  making  their  perquisitions  with  a  hungry 
greed  and  gloating  over  their  spoil.  The  great  company 
of  wayfarers  had  been  seized  with  a  sudden  access  of 
panic  as  the  advance  guard  of  Russian  cavalry  approached. 
The  Turkish  villagers,  fugitive  soldiers,  and  half-mad- 
dened refugees  had  fired  on  the  horsemen  while  they 
were  passing  through  the  successive  villages.     Reprisals 


360  Czar  and  StiUaii 

naturally  occurred  and  men  on  both  sides  suffered.  The 
bivouac,  it  seemed,  had  a  sort  of  convoy  in  the  shape 
of  a  battalion  of  Turkish  infantry.  This  force  dispersed 
at  sight  of  the  Russians,  of  whom  a  squadron  rode  for- 
ward into  the  throng  of  vehicles  to  ascertain  what  this 
strange  gathering  meant.  Suddenly  from  all  sides  came 
a  burst  of  firing  by  which  several  Russian  cavalrymen 
were  struck  down.  This  could  not  be  endured  and 
preparations  were  made  for  an  attack.  The  fugitives 
in  the  bivouac  saw  a  couple  of  guns  unlimber,  and  at  the 
sight  a  thrill  of  panic  darted  through  the  mass.  There 
was  a  universal  rush  to  the  mountains  and  a  wholesale 
abandonment  of  all  the  property  remaining  in  the  great 
bivouac,  to  the  material  advantage  of  the  ready-handed 
Bulgarians.  It  was  afterwards  ascertained  that  the  im- 
mense caravan  consisted  of  over  20,000  vehicles  and  had 
a  population  of  200,000,  of  whom  all  the  able-bodied  fled, 
leaving  the  old,  the  sick,  and  the  infants  to  be  massacred 
by  the  Bulgarians  or  to  perish  in  the  snow. 

If  I  remember  correctly,  it  was  on  the  26th  January 
that  we  rode  into  Adrianople  behind  General  Gourko. 
Skobeleff,  hurrying  down  from  the  Schipka  by  forced 
marches,  had  entered  Adrianople  on  the  22nd,  and  there 
we  found  him  and  congratulated  him  on  his  great  triumph. 
He  was  too  busy  to  tell  us  much,  and  he  was  off  again  in 
a  day  or  two,  following  the  railway  towards  the  lines  of 
Buyuk-Tchekmedje,  which  he  had  instructions  to  assault 
with  the  utmost  energy  if  the  armistice  should  not  have 
been  previously  signed  by  the  Turkish  Commissioners. 
Skobeleff  had  to  submit  to  a  disappointment,  for  which  I 
confess  I  was   not  sorry.     It  was   rather   a    close   thing. 


From  Sophia  to  Adrianople  361 

Skobeleff' s  cavalry  commanded  by  the  brilliant  and  dash- 
ing Stroukoff  was  at  Tchorlii,  within  a  march  of  the  lines, 
on  the  29th,  having  captured  that  village  after  a  skirmish 
the  last  shot  of  which  was  also  the  last  shot  of  the  war  ; 
and  at  that  date  Skobeleff  was  at  Lule-Bourgas,  only  one 
march  behind  Stroukoff.  The  armistice  was  signed  in 
the  evening  of  the  31st,  on  which  day  Gourko  and  his 
army  quitted  Adrianople  for  Rodosto  on  the  Sea  of  Mar- 
mora, whither  neither  Millett  nor  myself  accompanied 
him.  We  dined  with  him  on  the  evening  previous  to  his 
departure,  and  took  farewell  of  him  with  sincere  acknowl- 
edgment of  many  kindnesses  and  good  offices.  I  myself 
could  never  forget  his  conduct  to  me  on  the  evening  of  the 
fisfhtins:  at  Gorni-Dubnik.  He  was  not  a  lovable  man  in 
the  sense  that  dear  old  Todleben  was,  nor  had  he  the  fas- 
cination of  Skobeleff,  but  he  had  the  respect  and  esteem 
of  his  staff  and  of  his  army  ;  and  I  should  regret  deeply 
if  the  things  are  true  which  have  been  said  and  written  of 
him  while  governor  of  St.  Petersburg  and  afterwards  of 
Poland.  If  they  are,  all  that  I  have  to  say  is  that  his 
nature  must  have  greatly  deteriorated  since  I  knew  and 
admired  him. 

With  the  accomplishment  of  the  double  passage  of  the 
Balkans  by  the  Sophia  road  and  over  the  Schipka  Pass, 
the  whole  Turkish  defence  had  come  down  by  the  run. 
With  the  exception  of  the  army  of  the  Cesarevich  and 
Zimmermann's  corps  in  the  Dobrutscha,  nearly  the  whole 
of  the  Russian  forces  were  now  south  of  the  Balkans.  We 
were  told  that  about  125,000  Russian  soldiers  were  around 
or  eastward  of  Adrianople.  The  Grand  Duke  Nicholas 
and  his  staff  had  arrived  in  Adrianople  on  the  27th,  ac- 


362  Czar  and  Sultan 

companied  by  the  Turkish  Commissioners,  Server  Pasha 
and  Namyk  Pasha.  MacGahan  came  in  the  same  day, 
still  limping,  but  bright  and  cheery  as  ever.  A  day  or  two 
later  Villiers  arrived,  complaining  of  having  been  almost 
frozen  to  death  on  the  Schipka,  having  forgotten  to  keep 
himself  warm  while  engrossed  in  his  interminable  sketch- 
ing. We  four  lived  together  comfortably  in  a  good  house, 
resting  after  our  hardships.  We  ate,  drank,  smoked  and 
were  merry,  and  the  voice  of  MacGahan  was  again  uplifted 
in  song.  He  had  come  over  the  mountains  with  Skobeleff, 
and  in  his  own  phrase  we  "swapped  stories,"  he  recount- 
ing to  us  the  adventures  of  the  Schipka,  Millett  telling  him 
of  what  had  happened  with  Gourko.  You  know  all  about 
what  we  saw  and  endured  when  marching  with  that  chief, 
but  the  story  of  the  Schipka  crossing  as  told  by  MacGa- 
han you  will  find  worth  listening  to,  for  it  was  an  extraor- 
dinary feat.  I  give  you  merely  a  summary  of  MacGahan's 
account,  and  do  not  pretend  to  give  his  own  words. 

Staunch  old  Radetski  had  made  good  his  resolution  to 
hold  the  Schipka  "come  Turk,  come  devil,"  and  his  long 
steadfast  endurance  was  now  to  have  its  reward.  When 
Mirski  and  Skobeleff  had  come  to  reinforce  him,  the  gal- 
lant old  fighting  man  had  at  his  disposition  an  army  of 
56,000  infantry,  besides  cavalry  and  artillery.  One  of  his 
divisions,  the  24th,  was  of  no  use  to  him  ;  for  it  had  suf- 
fered so  dreadfully  up  on  the  mountain  summits  from  ex- 
posure that  one-half  of  it  was  entirely  unfit  for  duty.  He 
divided  his  army  into  three  separate  columns,  one  of  which, 
his  own  particular  command,  was  to  remain  on  Mount  St. 
Nicholas,  while  the  other  two  were  to  cross  one  on  either 
flank  and  attack  simultaneously  in   reverse  the   Turkish 


From  Sophia  to  Adria7iople  363 

army  beyond  the  pass  in  the  lower  ground  about  the  vil- 
lage of  Schipka.  The  left  column,  under  the  command 
of  Prince  Mirski,  consisting  of  26  battalions,  some  cavalry 
and  22  guns,  was  to  make  the  crossing  by  the  Travna  Pass, 
debouch  into  the  valley  at  Gusevo,  then  wheel  to  the  right 
and  attack  the  eastern  face  of  the  works  defending  the 
Turkish  positions.  Skobeleff  commanded  the  right  column 
of  22  battalions  and  12  guns.  He  had  the  more  arduous 
task ;  for  whereas  Mirski  had  a  road,  rugged  indeed  in 
places  but  still  a  practicable  road,  by  which  his  column 
was  to  traverse  the  mountain  ranges,  Skobeleff  had  for  his 
guidance  a  mere  footpath  which  for  a  great  part  of  the 
way  was  buried  under  many  feet  of  snow.  Both  columns 
started  on  January  5th  and'Radetski's  reckoning  was  that 
they  should  reach  the  Tundja  valley  on  the  evening  of  the 
7th  and  be  in  position  to  attack  on  the  following  morning. 
Mirski,  having  the  easier  although  the  longer  journey,  ful- 
filled his  part  of  the  programme.  About  noon  of  the  8th 
he  deployed  his  command,  and  advanced  to  the  attack  of 
the  Turkish  positions  in  accordance  with  his  instructions. 
At  first  he  prospered,  and  after  some  sharp  fighting  carried 
a  couple  of  outlying  villages  ;  but  then  he  came  in  face  of 
a  low  ridge  lined  with  tiers  of  rifle  pits  which  gave  him 
pause.  Mirski,  although  a  gallant  soldier,  was  a  nervous 
man,  and  there  were  no  strong  men  on  his  staff.  His 
troops  with  a  rush  captured  the  Turkish  line  of  trenches, 
but  were  then  brought  up  all  standing  by  the  chain  of 
redoubts  south  of  Schipka  village.  It  fell  dark  ;  the  Rus- 
sians were  tired  and  dispirited  and  they  had  run  short  of 
ammunition.  The  Turks  seized  the  opportunity,  charged 
them  vigorously,  and  drove  them  back  some  little  distance. 


364  Czar  and  Sultan 

It  was  for  poor  Mirski  a  sufficiently  unpleasant  situation, 
and  he  was  very  unhappy.  As  he  wrote  to  Radetski,  he 
had  been  confronted  by  superior  numbers,  he  had  lost 
heavily,  he  was  all  but  run  out  of  ammunition,  there  were 
no  signs  of  Skobeleff,  and  unless  some  help  came  to  him 
he  would  be  compelled  to  retreat.  Radetski  replied,  beg- 
ging him  to  hold  on,  assuring  him  that  Skobeleff  would 
soon  arrive,  and  promising  to  relieve  him  by  a  direct  attack 
from  St.  Nicholas  on  the  following  morning.  Fog  blinded 
the  scene  then,  but  Radetski  heard  the  sound  of  heavy 
firing  down  in  the  valley  and  loyally  struck  in  to  make  a 
diversion  in  favour  of  Mirski.  Through  the  thick  snow  and 
fog  he  hurled  a  couple  of  regiments  against  the  Turkish 
defences  in  front  of  St.  Nicholas.  The  effort  succeeded 
so  far  that  two  of  the  Turkish  trench-lines  were  carried, 
but  at  the  formidable  cost  of  a  loss  of  1,700  men.  Mean- 
while Mirski  was  doing  better  than  on  the  previous  day. 
He  had  been  assailed  on  both  flanks,  but  had  repulsed 
both  attempts.  Then  he  had  hardened  his  heart  and  be- 
taken himself  to  the  offensive,  with  the  result  of  capturing 
a  redoubt  and  occupying  the  village  of  Schipka.  During 
a  lull  in  the  afternoon  fighting  Mirski's  men  suddenly 
heard  loud  cheering  on  their  left  about  the  village  of  She- 
nova.  The  cheering  came  from  the  throats  of  Skobeleff's 
soldiers  making  the  assault  which,  as  Captain  Greene,  the 
American  military  attache,  pointedly  remarks,  "  decided  at 
once  the  battle  and  the  fate  of  the  entire  Turkish  army  of 
Schipka." 

Skobeleff  did  not  keep  tryst  with  his  brother  com- 
mander. Skobeleff,  I  may  here  interpolate,  like  every 
successful   man,  had  many  enemies,  and  his   nature  was 


From  Sophia  to  Adrianople  365 

not  conciliatory.  He  was  accused  of  fighting  too  much 
for  his  own  hand  and  of  not  being  loyal  in  co-operation. 
When  I  called  on  Prince  Mirski  in  Adrianople  to  pay  my 
respects  to  one  who  had  been  kind  to  me  in  the  early  days 
of  the  campaign,  I  may  tell  you  that  he  broke  out  very 
vehemently  against  Skobeleff,  and  frankly  accused  him  of 
having  been  guilty  of  deliberate  treachery  for  the  sake  of 
increasing  his  own  prestige.  There  was  with  Mirski  an 
ex-Prussian  officer,  whom  the  general  introduced  to  me 
as  a  member  of  his  staff,  and  for  whom,  because  of  his 
manner,  I  conceived  a  great  dislike.  This  officer  permitted 
himself  to  assert  in  as  many  words  that  Skobeleff  had 
"  deliberately  sold  "  Prince  Mirski,  —  that  was  his  expres- 
sion,—  and  further  charged  him  with  having  pillaged  the 
Turkish  military  chest  of  several  heavy  bags  of  gold.  I 
was  sorry  that  a  grand  seigneur  like  Mirski  should  not 
have  exercised  more  self-restraint  than  to  give  heed  to  the 
irritating  expressions  of  this  coarse  German  condottiere. 
This  is  a  digression :  I  return  now  to  the  summary  of 
MacGahan's  narrative.  Skobeleff  was  a  day  behind  his 
prescribed  time ;  he  had  started  later  by  several  hours 
than  Mirski  because  the  latter  had  to  cover  nearly  twice 
the  distance  of  the  former.  While  descending  the  moun- 
tain on  the  7th  he  met  with  resistance  from  the  Turks 
holding  a  line  of  trenches  commanding  his  route,  in  dis- 
lodging whom  he  was  a  good  deal  delayed,  and  it  was 
with  only  his  advance  guard  that  he  reached  the  village 
of  Imetli  that  evening.  He  would  probably  have  suffered 
much  more  heavily  but  for  the  wise  precaution  he  had 
taken  before  leaving  Plevna  of  arming  a  battalion  of  the 
Ouglitski  regiment  with  Peabody-Martinis  taken  from  the 


366  Czar  and  Sullan 

Turks.  On  the  morning  of  the  8th  some  slight  opposi- 
tion near  Imetli  was  brushed  away.  Skobelcff  dccHned 
to  believe  the  testimony  of  his  pickets  that  on  this  morn- 
ing Mirski,  acting  on  his  instructions,  was  advancing 
single-handed  to  the  attack ;  and  he  expressed  his  belief 
that  the  sound  of  firing  which  was  heard  came  from  the 
direction  of  Mount  St.  Nicholas.  He  had  sent  word  to 
Radetski  that  he  could  not  be  up  to  time,  and  the  reply 
came  that  he  was  to  attack  on  the  9th,  but  not  do  so  until 
his  force  should  be  concentrated.  It  seemed  an  unwise 
omission  not  at  this  juncture  to  have  opened  communica- 
tion with  Mirski,  to  whom  information  of  Skobeleff's  dis- 
positions would  have  been  valuable ;  but  Skobeleff  might 
have  held  that  if  Mirski  desired  to  have  intelligence  of 
him,  he  might  take  the  trouble  to  send  for  it.  Skobeleff 
stood  by  the  letter  of  his  instructions,  and  would  not 
descend  into  the  valley  until  his  whole  force  had  reached 
Imetli.  By  the  morning  of  the  9th  all  of  it  was  over  the 
summit  except  the  rear-guard  regiment,  which  was  delayed 
by  dragging  the  guns  up  the  steep  ascents.  Skobeleff 
sent  it  word  to  leave  the  guns  and  hurry  forward.  When 
it  was  in  sight  on  the  descent,  he  fronted  to  his  left  and 
marched  eastward  on  the  double  line  of  Turkish  redoubts 
covering  on  the  west  the  village  of  Shenova. 

Some  distance  had  to  be  traversed,  there  were  a  few 
preliminary  skirmishes,  and  the  deployment,  according  to 
Skobeleff's  habit,  was  effected  with  a  deliberation  and 
punctiliousness  which  he  held  indispensable  to  give  the 
men  steadiness  and  composure.  The  first  line  consisted 
of  the  Ouglitski  regiment  and  the  Bulgarian  legion  seven 
battalions  strong;  in  the  second  were  the  6ist  and  64th 


From  Sophia  to  Adriaiioplc  367 

regiments  and  the  Rifle  Brigade.  The  banners  were 
unfurled,  the  regimental  bands  filled  the  air  with  their 
music,  and  Skobeleff  gave  the  word.  The  serried  line 
moved  forward  to  the  assault  with  dressed  ranks  and 
without  firing  a  shot.  The  casualties  were  very  heavy, 
but  as  men  went  down  the  ranks  closed  in  and  pushed  on 
steadily  and  silently.  As  the  redoubts  were  approached, 
the  soldiers  with  a  rattling  "  hurrah !  "  sprang  forward  at 
the  double  and  stormed  the  faces  of  the  Turkish  redoubts. 
Then  there  was  a  short  but  fierce  fight,  for  the  most  part 
with  the  bayonet,  between  the  enemies  pressed  together 
in  the  confined  spaces  in  mortal  conflict.  In  the  issue,  of 
the  Turks  who  outlived  that  stern  strife  some  surrendered, 
some  fled  towards  Schipka.  Skobeleff  was  organising  the 
pursuit  when  a  parlenicntaire  rode  up  to  him,  and  in  the 
name  of  the  Turkish  Commander-in-Chief  surrendered  to 
Skobeleff  the  whole  Schipka  army.  It  numbered  in  all 
36,000  men,  of  whom  about  6,000  were  sick  or  wounded ; 
and  with  it  93  guns  became  prize  of  the  conquerors.  But 
their  victory  was  not  cheaply  attained.  The  Russian  losses 
were  about  5,000.  The  proportion  of  casualties  to  the 
strength  actually  engaged  was  i  in  5.  Mirski's  command 
suffered  most  severely. 

The  Tundja  valley  —  in  peace  time  the  loveliest  tract  I 
have  ever  seen,  with  its  rose  gardens,  its  vineyards,  its 
clear  streams,  its  hanging  woods  and  fertile  farms  —  was 
now  a  howling  desolation  and  could  yield  no  supplies  to 
troops  on  the  march.  A  delay  occurred  before  the  Schipka 
Pass  could  be  opened  ;  and  it  was  not  until  the  13th  that 
General  Stroukoff,  commanding  Skobeleff' s  cavalry,  left 
Kezanlik  on  the  march  to  Adrianople.     On  the  evening 


368  Czar  and  Sultan 

of  the  14th  he  was  on  the  Maritza  in  front  of  Tirnova, 
after  a  ride  of  sixty  miles.  Next  day  he  attacked  a  Turk- 
ish detachment  of  regulars  and  a  horde  of  armed  peasants 
who  held  the  village  and  the  bridge,  drove  them  away, 
made  himself  master  of  the  bridge,  and  cut  the  railway 
and  the  telegraph  wires.  On  the  19th,  when  near  Adri- 
anople,  tidings  came  to  Stroukoff  that  the  city  was  in 
a  wild  chaos  of  panic,  its  Turkish  garrison  having  fled 
after  blowing  up  the  powder  magazines.  Stroukoff  acted 
promptly.  He  galloped  into  Adrianople,  took  possession 
of  it  in  the  name  of  the  Czar,  and  restored  order  with 
resolution  but  discretion.  Skobeleff's  infantry  could  travel 
as  fast  as  Stroukoff' s  cavalry.  His  march  from  Kezanlik 
began  on  the  15th,  and  his  troops  were  in  Adrianople  on 
the  22nd.  Todleben  was  right  —  Adrianople  might  well 
have  become  another  and  a  stronger  Plevna.  It  had  a 
garrison  of  10,000  men,  and  if  Suleiman  had  been  of  any 
account  that  force  could  have  been  increased  to  50,000,  a 
strength  sufficient  to  man  the  formidable  works  which  sur- 
rounded it.  Yet  Stroukoff  took  possession  of  Adrianople 
without  firing  a  shot,  and  a  few  days  later  that  beautiful 
and  venerable  city  was  the  headquarters  of  a  Russian 
Grand  Duke. 

I  cannot  tell  the  difference  between  a  ravelin  and  a 
bastion  —  for  aught  I  know,  indeed,  they  may  be  the  same 
thing.  But  the  Russian  officers  were  full  of  admiration 
for  the  skill  and  ability  with  which  Blum  Pasha,  a  Prussian 
Engineer  officer  in  the  Turkish  service,  had  fortified  Adri- 
anople. The  Turks  when  they  evacuated  that  city  left  an 
immense  quantity  of  military  stores  and  more  than  200 
Krupp  siege-guns,  all  of  which  were  now  Russian  prop- 


From  Sophia  to  Adrianople  369 

erty.  Properly  garrisoned  and  with  all  that  wealth  of 
stores,  munitions  and  guns,  Adrianople,  it  was  said  by  the 
experts,  would  have  been  impregnable.  The  detached 
forts  which  surrounded  the  city  were  most  elaborate  con- 
structions, each  with  a  high  central  "  cavalier  "  —  what- 
ever that  may  mean  in  military  engineering  phraseology. 
There  was  some  talk  of  bringing  General  Todleben  over 
the  Balkans  to  inspect  the  Adrianople  fortifications.  I 
may  tell  you  that  on  February  21st  the  grand  old  chief 
took  formal  possession  of  Rustchuk  in  terms  of  the 
armistice.  Todleben's  fire  had  made  a  complete  smash 
of  the  fortifications  of  Rustchuk,  as  I  was  informed  by  an 
officer  who  had  recently  left  that  neighbourhood.  The 
houses  in  the  town  had  also  been  badly  battered  and  the 
whole  Grande  Place  was  one  dismal  wreck.  I  was  told 
that  after  an  inspection  of  the  outlying  forts  General  Tod- 
leben returned  to  his  quarters  in  Giurgevo, — this  house, 
you  will  remember,  —  and  that  next  day  he  left  for 
Bucharest  on  his  way  home  to  Russia.  I  had  hoped 
to  meet  him  at  my  father's  table  before  his  departure, 
but  I  had  the  honour  of  being  his  guest  when  I  visited 
Russia  after  the  war. 

Now  and  then  we  became  acquainted  with  incidents 
which  went  to  prove  that,  notwithstanding  their  superficial 
gloss  of  refinement  and  civilisation,  the  Russians  had  in 
their  blood  a  strong  strain  of  sheer  savagery.  You  will 
remember  me  telling  you  of  the  pleasant  evening  I  en- 
joyed with  the  English  surgeons  at  Strigli  on  the  day  after 
the  fight  at  Tashkessen.  I  could  not  give  much  hope  to 
Baker  Pasha,  but  I  had  ventured,  from  what  I  had  heard 
of  the  Grand  Duke  Nicholas'  courtesy  to  Messrs.  Douglas 


370  Czar  and  Sultan 

and  Vachell,  to  assure  the  Strigli  surgeons  that  they  need 
apprehend  no  detention  at  the  hands  of  the  Russians. 
The  provisions  of  the  Geneva  Convention,  against  infrac- 
tions of  which  on  the  part  of  the  Turks  the  Russians 
protested  to  the  nations  with  a  vehemence  so  great,  were 
perfectly  definite  in  regard  to  surgeons  volunteering  to 
give  their  services  to  the  sick  and  wounded  in  war  time, 
their  character  being  proved  by  their  papers  and  by  the 
Red  Cross  brassard  on  their  arm.  I  myself  heard  General 
Gourko  say  that  the  Strigli  surgeons  could  not  for  a 
moment  be  regarded  as  prisoners  of  war ;  and  I  further 
heard,  although  this  was  at  second-hand,  that  they  were 
to  be  free  at  their  convenience  either  to  go  west  into 
Servia  on  their  way  home  or  to  cross  the  Danube  into 
Roumania.  You  can  imagine  my  surprise,  then,  when 
one  morning  at  the  British  Consulate  in  Adrianople  I 
found  those  gentlemen  in  Mr.  Blunt's  waiting-room,  look- 
ing extremely  pulled  down  and  forlorn.  It  was  with  indig- 
nation and  disgust  that  I  heard  them  tell  that  they  were 
still  prisoners  of  war  in  charge  of  a  Russian  corporal 
whom  I  had  seen  on  the  pavement  outside,  and  that  they 
had  been  subjected  to  cruel  sufferings  and  hardships 
which  made  one's  blood  boil.  Prince  Oldenburg  had 
left  at  Strigli  a  certain  Captain  Baranoffsky,  who  gave 
them  into  the  custody  of  a  corporal's  guard  with  orders 
to  march  them  to  the  Commander-in-Chief's  headquarters 
at  Bogot.  For  three  weeks  had  those  English  gentlemen 
been  tramping  through  Bulgaria  as  common  prisoners  of 
war,  roughly  treated  by  the  rude  soldiers  who  guarded 
them,  compelled  to  walk  afoot  and  lead  their  horses,  and 
during   the   nights  incarcerated  in  some  wretched  cellar. 


From  Sophia  to  Adrianople  371 

They  had  to  live  for  the  most  part  on  bread  and  water, 
for  among  them  they  had  scarcely  any  money  and  the 
two  roubles  apiece  of  marching  money  which  Baranoffsky 
had  handed  to  them  lasted  for  only  the  first  few  days. 
They  crossed  the  Balkans  twice  in  their  compulsory 
tramp,  trudging  in  the  bitterest  days  of  winter  from 
Strigli  by  way  of  Orkanie,  Plevna,  Loftcha,  Selvi, 
Gabrova,  and  over  the  Schipka  to  Kezanlik,  where  for 
the  first  time  they  found  a  friend  in  the  commandant 
of  that  place  who  gave  them  some  money  and  otherwise 
befriended  them.  On  the  representations  of  the  British 
consul  they  were  at  once  set  at  liberty  and  went  off  to 
Constantinople  immediately.  The  Grand  Duke,  probably 
with  his  tongue  in  his  cheek,  not  only  instructed  the  com- 
mandant of  Adrianople  to  apologise  for  what  he  thought 
proper  to  designate  as  a  misunderstanding,  but  intimated 
his  intention  to  have  the  conduct  of  Captain  Baranoffsky 
strictly  investigated.  I  never  heard  that  anything  came 
of  this  investigation,  and  if  the  captain  is  still  alive  prob- 
ably his  most  amusing  after-dinner  story  is  the  manner  in 
which  he  treated  the  English  surgeons  in  the  war  time. 


CHAPTER   XV 

SAN    STEFANO    AND    HOME    AGAIN 

I  CONFESS  that  I  got  extremely  tired  of  Adrianople 
after  a  fortnight's  stay  in  it.  Millett,  too,  had  enough 
of  that  city,  and  was  well  content  that  we  should  travel 
further  and  get  to  the  front.  We  had  sold  our  horses  and 
were  now  travellers  by  the  railway.  I  think  it  was  on 
February  lOth  that  we  reached  the  smiling  village  of 
Tchataldja,  consisting  chiefly  of  pleasant  country-houses 
belonging  to  rich  Greeks  and  Turks  of  Constantinople. 
The  Greeks  had  remained,  but  the  Turkish  houses  were 
empty  and  in  them  Skobeleff  and  his  staff  found  excellent 
accommodation.  Tchataldja  is  about  thirty-five  miles  from 
Constantinople  and  within  four  miles  of  the  famous  lines 
of  Kuyuk-Tchekmedje.  These  had  been  occupied  by  some 
30,000  of  Suleiman's  forlorn  soldiers  brought  up  by  sea 
from  Enos  and  by  the  troops  that  had  been  the  garrison 
of  Adrianople,  commanded  by  Mukhtar  Pasha  who  had 
previously  lost  an  army  in  Asia.  In  terms  of  the  armistice 
Mukhtar  had  to  evacuate  this  commanding  position,  which 
was  declared  to  be  neutral  ground,  and  to  withdraw  behind 
the  inner  line  of  Kuyuk-Tchekmedje,  only  about  ten  miles 
from  the  Turkish  capital.  Skobeleff  had  experienced  some 
trouble  in  enforcing  on  Mukhtar  the  conditions  of  the 
armistice,  and  his  heavy  guns,  we  were  told,  were  still  in 

372 


San  Stefano  and  Home  A  gam  373 

position  but  had  been  dismounted  from  their  carriages. 
On  the  1 2th  came  the  ominous  intelHgence  that  the  Brit- 
ish fleet  had  forced  its  way  through  the  Dardanelles,  when 
the  Grand  Duke  Nicholas  immediately  received  an  author- 
isation from  St.  Petersburg  to  enter  Constantinople.  For 
once  Nicholas  showed  moderation,  and  contented  himself 
with  occupying  with  the  permission  of  the  Porte  the  vil- 
lage of  San  Stefano  on  the  Sea  of  Marmora  about  six 
miles  from  the  capital.  When  this  arrangement  was 
arrived  at  the  headquarter  staff,  accompanied  by  a  Cos- 
sack regiment  and  the  body-guard,  left  Adrianople  by 
train  on  February  23rd  and  reached  Tchataldja  the  same 
evening.  Skobeleff's  command  was  drawn  up  to  receive 
the  Grand  Duke,  who  reviewed  and  praised  the  troops, 
and  he  was  on  the  point  of  starting  for  San  Stefano  when 
Tahir  Bey,  the  Turkish  delimitation-commissioner,  saluted 
his  Highness  and  informed  him  that  Mukhtar  Pasha  had 
no  orders  to  withdraw  his  troops  from  Kuyuk-Tchekmedje. 
This  intimation  prevented  the  Grand  Duke  from  going  on 
to  San  Stefano,  and  he  became  exceedingly  angry. 

Shaking  his  finger  at  Tahir,  he  shouted  in  a  voice  that 
made  the  Turk  shake  in  his  boots : 

"  Go  and  tell  Mukhtar  Pasha  that  when  I  give  him  an 
order  he  must  obey  and  that  at  once,  or  he  will  repent  it. 
Go!" 

Tahir  sprang  on  a  locomotive  and  sped  along  the  line 
to  Kuyuk.  It  became  known  that  unless  the  Turks  aban- 
doned their  positions  before  then  they  would  be  attacked 
at  daylight,  and  there  was  any  quantity  of  thunder  in  the 
atmosphere.  Skobeleff  was  in  high  spirits,  for  he  was 
burning  for  another  fight.     The  Grand  Duke,  who  never 


374  Czar  and  Sultan 

thoroughly  liked  Skobeleff,  asked  him  what  he  thought 
of  the  situation.  Skobeleff  in  his  most  reckless  manner 
replied  : 

"  For  my  part,  Monseigneur,  I  hope  we  are  going  to 
have  a  war  with  England  !  " 

"Oh,  but  you  are  a  madman!"  exclaimed  the  Grand 
Duke  in  a  passion,  as  he  turned  from  Skobeleff  and 
spat  viciously  on  the  ground.  Skobeleff  shrugged  his 
shoulders. 

Tahir  was  back  by  midnight  with  the  intimation  that 
Mukhtar  was  withdrawing  and  that  Russian  troops  were 
marching  into  the  evacuated  positions.  So  the  journey 
was  resumed,  and  early  on  the  morning  of  the  24th  the 
Grand  Ducal  train  was  at  San  Stefano.  Millett  and  I 
travelled  by  it,  and  had  to  walk  about  till  daylight.  We 
all  found  San  Stefano  delightful  —  clean  and  bright,  with 
a  pleasant  esplanade,  a  pier,  and  charming  little  painted 
houses  looking  out  on  the  sea.  Life  was  very  gay  in  San 
Stefano ;  and  the  fine  bands  of  the  regiments  of  the 
Guard,  of  which  the  first  and  second  divisions  were  in 
camp  close  to  the  village  and  the  third  only  a  short  dis- 
tance away  at  Kuyuk-Tchekmedje,  played  on  the  espla- 
nade all  day  long.  The  weather  was  perfection,  and  it  was 
very  restful  to  look  out  on  the  Sea  of  Marmora  through 
the  glimmer  of  the  sunshine  with  Mount  Olympus  in  the 
misty  distance.  But  though  cheerfulness  was  the  viot 
(Tordre  among  the  Russian  sojourners  in  San  Stefano, 
what  with  the  English  ironclads  looming  over  against  us, 
the  Turkish  troops  gathering  fast  behind  the  rising  earth- 
works encircling  Constantinople,  and  the  impatience  of 
the  hot-heads  in  the  Russian  army  to  end  the  business  with 


Sail  Stefano  and  Home  Again  375 

a  final  Armageddon,  thinking  men  realised  that  we  might 
be  dancing  on  a  volcano.  The  Turkish  ambassadors  pot- 
tered on,  interposing  delays  and  hesitation  at  every  stage. 
At  length  the  terms  of  the  treaty  of  peace  were  reported 
to  have  been  settled,  and  there  remained  but  the  formali- 
ties of  engrossing  and  the  signatures.  I  had  a  touch  of 
fever  and  was  unable  to  witness  the  dramatic  celebration 
of  the  announcement  of  peace.  You  will  not  in  the  least 
regret  my  absence  from  that  scene  and  my  consequent  in- 
ability to  describe  it  to  you,  when  I  quote  to  you  the  letter 
to  the  Daily  Nczvs  which  was  the  admirable  combined 
work  of  MacGahan  and  Millett,  and  which  presents  to 
you  vividly  a  scene  not  less  picturesque  and  romantic 
than  memorable  because  of  its  historic  interest  and  impor- 
tance — 

"...  In  General  Ignatieff's  house  by  the  seaside  at 
San  Stefano,  shaken  by  the  increasing  gale  that  tore  across 
the  Sea  of  Marmora,  were  busy  all  night  long  the  secreta- 
ries of  both  diplomatic  bodies  copying  and  arranging  for 
the  signatures  the  Treaty  of  Peace,  the  result  of  the  now 
concluded  negotiations.  All  night  long  Prince  Tzeretleff 
dictated  the  treaty  to  his  colleague  Chebachoff,  who  wrote 
and  wrote  through  the  long  hours  until  the  document  was 
finished.  Although  wearied  by  continual  labour,  these  two 
secretaries,  appreciating  the  value  of  their  work,  kept  at 
their  task,  only  stopping  for  refreshment  and  to  listen  to 
the  scratch  of  the  reeds  of  the  Turkish  secretaries  in  an 
adjoining  room  busy  with  their  own  copy,  until  the  dawn 
found  them  still  at  the  table.  Then,  the  last  word  being 
on  paper,  they  slept  amidst  the  confusion  of  documents, 
maps,  and  volumes,  as  a  soldier  sleeps  in  his  harness. 


376  Czar  and  Snltan 


"  Scarcely  was  it  daylight  when,  notwithstanding  the 
storm,  there  was  an  unwonted  stir  in  the  village.  Steam- 
ers from  Constantinople  came  rolling  along  over  the  rough 
sea,  overladen  with  excursionists  attracted  by  the  review 
which  had  been  announced  to  take  place  in  celebration  of 
the  anniversary  of  the  Czar's  accession  to  the  throne. 
Greeks,  Bulgarians,  Turks  and  Russians  crowded  the  little 
place,  besieging  the  restaurants  and  impatiently  awaiting 
the  hour  of  two,  the  appointed  time  for  the  spectacle. 
The  horses  of  the  Grand  Duke  and  his  staff  were  gath- 
ered about  the  entrance  to  his  quarters,  and  keen-eyed 
spectators  ready  to  interpret  the  slightest  movement  of 
the  Russian  Commander-in-Chief  formed  unbroken  ranks 
around  the  group  of  horses  in  the  street. 

"  One  o'clock  passed.  Two  o'clock  passed ;  and  still 
no  movement.  People  began  to  grow  serious,  began  to 
feel  that  something  was  in  the  air,  gradually  assured 
themselves  that  the  decisive  moment  was  near,  that  peace 
and  war  were  trembling  in  the  balance ;  and  one  man 
said  to  another,  'This  is  an  event  in  history.'  At  length 
word  was  given  out  that  the  review  was  postponed  until 
three,  but  that  time  came  and  went,  and  brought  only  a 
postponement  for  another  hour. 

"  At  length  patience  was  rewarded.  About  four  o'clock 
the  Grand  Duke  mounted  and  rode  to  the  Diplomatic 
Chancery,  where  he  asked  at  the  door  '  Is  it  ready  t '  and 
then  galloped  towards  the  hill  where  the  army  was  drawn 
up.  Here  we  halted  again  for  a  few  moments,  wondering 
what  would  happen  next.  Finally  a  carriage  came  whirl- 
ing out  of  the  village  towards  us.  General  Ignatieff  rose 
from  his  seat  in  it  and  said  in  a  loud  voice  : 


San  Stefano  and  Home  Again  377 


"  '  I  have  the  honour  to  congratulate  your  Highness  on 
the  signature  of  peace  ! ' 

"  There  was  a  long  loud  shout.  Then  the  Grand  Duke, 
followed  by  about  a  hundred  officers,  dashed  forward  to 
where  the  troops  were  formed  up  on  rising  ground  close 
to  the  seacoast,  and  began  to  ride  along  the  lines.  As 
he  passed  the  soldiers  did  not  know  that  peace  had  been 
signed,  for  it  was  still  unannounced ;  but  soon  the  news 
spread  and  the  cheering  grew  louder  and  more  enthu- 
siastic. Very  different  indeed  was  the  appearance  of  these 
soldiers  now  and  that  of  the  same  men  two  months  ago. 
During  their  interval  of  rest  they  had  patched  and  cleaned 
their  clothes,  repaired  and  polished  their  boots,  and  washed 
and  brushed  up  generally,  so  that  they  looked  as  trim  and 
neat  as  need  be. 

"After  riding  the  lines  the  Grand  Duke  halted  on  a 
little  eminence  whence  all  the  troops  could  be  seen,  and 
made  the  formal  announcement  of  the  peace  : 

" '  I  have  the  honour  to  inform  the  army  that  with  the 
help  of  God  we  have  concluded  a  Treaty  of  Peace.' 

"Then  another  great  shout  burst  forth  from  20,000 
throats,  rising,  swelling,  and  dying  away.  The  feeling  of 
relief  and  satisfaction  was  universal.  There  stood  the 
famous  regiment  of  Peter  the  Great,  the  Preobrazhensky, 
which  often  headed  the  attack  in  the  later  battles  of  the 
war.  There  were  the  troops  which  had  faced  the  enemy 
on  the  bleak  summit  of  the  Balkans  above  the  Baba- 
Konak  Pass  for  a  long,  cold,  terrible  month.  These  were 
the  men  who  had  toiled  over  the  slippery  mountain-paths, 
scantily  fed,  thinly  dressed,  dragging  the  heavy  guns  up 
the  steep  mountain-sides,  and  finding  after  their  struggles 


378  Czar  and  Suit  an 

with  hunger,  cold  and  fatigue,  a  desperate  enemy  ready  to 
oppose  them  on  every  hill-top.  These  were  the  same 
brave  fellows  who  had  made  the  long  march  from  Sophia 
to  Philippopolis,  who  had  run  that  race  for  enormous 
stakes  with  Suleiman's  army,  had  finally  hurled  it  against 
the  precipices  of  the  Rhodope  mountains,  and  had  smashed 
it  to  pieces.  These  were  the  men  whose  courage,  devo- 
tion, and  unparalleled  endurance  will  go  down  in  history 
and  legend. 

"  And  there,  gathered  scarcely  more  than  a  rifle-shot 
distant,  was  the  enemy  they  had  found  worthy  of  their 
steel.  For  on  the  crests  of  the.  neighbouring  hills  stood 
the  Turks  in  groups,  interested  spectators  of  the  scene  ; 
those  very  men  who  had  kept  the  snowy  ridge  of  Shan- 
darnik,  who  had  defended  the  great  gate  of  Roumelia, 
and  who  at  last,  after  a  memorable  retreat,  had  fought  as 
heroes  fight,  on  the  hills  of  Stanimaka.  These  two  armies 
stood  looking  at  each  other  in  this  hour  of  final  peace ; 
like  true  soldiers  they  had  learned  to  respect  and  esteem 
each  other,  and  welcomed  peace  as  an  honourable  finish 
to  the  fight  which  they  cared  not  to  prolong.  It  was  the 
beginning  of  a  new  friendship  formed  on  the  basis  of 
actual  mutual  experience  of  qualities  that  had  previously 
been  unrecognised. 

"  After  the  review,  —  gathering  his  officers  about  him 
where  the  priest  stood  ready  for  the  Te  Dcuni,  the  Grand 
Duke  spoke  briefly  and  emphatically,  saying : 

"'To  an  army  which  has  accomplished  what  you  have 
done,  my  friends,  nothing  is  impossible.' 

"  Then  all  dismounted  and  uncovered  and  a  solemn 
service  was  conducted,  the  soldiers  all  kneeling.     Never 


San  Stefano  and  Home  Again  379 

could  a  peace  have  been  celebrated  under  more  dramatic 
and  picturesque  conditions,  or  with  more  impressive  sur- 
roundings. The  two  armies  face  to  face,  the  clearing 
storm,  the  waning  light  of  day,  the  rush  of  the  wind  and 
the  near  wash  of  the  wave  mingling  with  the  chaunt  of 
the  priests  and  the  responses  of  the  soldiers  and  the  roar 
of  the  sea  swelling  and  falling.  The  landscape,  always 
of  great  beauty,  now  formed  a  wonderfully  appropriate 
background  to  the  picture.  Across  the  chafing  waters 
of  the  Marmora  the  dome  and  minarets  of  St.  Sophia 
rose  up  sharply  against  the  sky,  the  dominant  points 
in  the  broken  silhouette  of  Stamboul.  Away  to  the 
south  the  Prince's  Islands  rose  like  great  mounds,  dark 
and  massive,  against  the  distant  Asiatic  shore,  and  be- 
hind them  we  knew  was  the  English  fleet.  Above  and 
far  beyond  the  white  peak  of  Mount  Olympus  unveiled 
for  the  moment  its  majestic  summits  as  the  rays  of 
the  ruddy  sunset  were  reflected  from  the  snow-clad 
flanks. 

"  The  religious  ceremony  over,  the  Grand  Duke  took  his 
stand,  and  the  troops  began  to  file  past  with  a  swinging 
rapid  stride,  in  forcible  contrast  to  the  weary  pace  with 
which  they  used  to  drag  themselves  along  at  the  end  of 
that  long  and  exhausting  race,  scarcely  at  times  able  to 
put  one  foot  before  the  other.  The  night  was  falling  and 
darkness  was  settling  over  the  scene.  As  we  left  the  spot 
the  Grand  Duke  was  still  sitting  immovable  in  the  saddle, 
and  the  troops  were  still  passing.  As  we  rode  down  into 
the  village  we  could  hear  the  joyful  shouts  still  ringing  in 
the  air  and  the  measured  tramp  moving  away  into  the 
darkness." 


380  Czar  and  Sultan 

My  long  story  is  very  near  its  ending.  The  memory  of 
that  eventful  year  breaking  the  peaceful  monotony  of  my 
quiet  life  would  not  be  other  than  pleasant,  notwithstand- 
ing the  hardships  I  had  endured,  but  for  the  sorrow  that 
came  as  that  year  drew  to  its  close.  When  peace  time 
had  come  I  was  needed  at  home,  where  commerce  had 
begun  to  revive  along  the  Danube  and  where  I  could  be 
of  service  to  the  house  of  Carnegie.  Well  do  I  remember 
that  pleasant  last  night  in  the  Pera  Hotel,  where  the 
gentlemen  who  had  been  so  kind  to  me  and  had  treated 
me  as  one  of  themselves — MacGahan,  Millett,  and 
Villiers  —  came  together  to  eat  with  me  for  the  last  time. 
When  the  time  came  to  break  up,  and  MacGahan  led  off 
the  old  song  of  farewell,  there  was  a  lump  in  my  throat 
that  hindered  me  from  joining  in  the  "  Auld  Lang  Syne !" 
The  oldest  and  dearest  of  my  three  friends,  the  wise, 
genial,  and  high-souled  MacGahan,  rode  with  me  as  far  as 
San  Stefano.  The  grip  of  his  hand  was  still  on  mine  as 
the  train  carried  me  off  and  left  him  standing  on  the  plat- 
form. I  was  to  see  that  kindly  face  no  more.  He  was 
under  orders  to  attend  the  Berlin  Congress  when  his 
countryman  Captain  Greene  sickened  of  typhus  fever. 
MacGahan  nursed  him,  took  the  infection  from  him,  and 
died  in  Constantinople  after  a  few  days'  illness.  Frank 
Millett  and  Frederic  Villiers,  —  the  former  a  New  Eng- 
lander,  the  latter  an  Englishman,  —  both  of  whom  had 
begun  and  finished  the  campaign  with  him,  helped  to 
lower  him  into  his  far-off  foreign  grave,  around  which 
stood  mourners  of  a  dozen  nationalities,  and  over  which 
his  true  and  constant  friend,  Lady  Strangford,  placed 
a  stone  with  an  epitaph   as  true   as  beautiful.     Another 


Sail  Stcfano  and  Home  Again  381 

friend  who  could  not  stand  by  his  graveside,  while  life  and 
memory  remain  to  him  will  never  forget  him,  his  wisdom, 
his  sagacity,  his  frank  courage,  his  loyal  manliness,  his 
cheery  lovablencss,  his  noble  genius. 


FINIS. 


Norfaooti  19rcs8 : 

J.  S.  CuBhin?  &  Co.  —  Berwick  &  Smith. 
Boston,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 


DATE  DUE 

1            111     1 

321     7 

GAYLORD 

PRINTED  IN  U.S.A. 

